Representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate have begun the process of leaving the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.
Source: Minister of Culture and Information Policy Oleksandr Tkachenko on the air of the national news telethon
Direct speech: “The process of leaving is underway. Any passer-by in the Lavra can testify to this. Boilers, tables, chairs are being taken out. Some kind of process has begun.
Now an interdepartmental commission is working, which should record the state of preservation of real estate and movable property, museum exhibits that were in the use of the UOC-MP. As soon as the commission completes its work, it will be possible to clearly say what was wrong.
All these loud statements do not correspond to reality, that is, they are leaving little by little.
There are representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the SBU, there are checks at the exit from the Lavra. The process is under control.
Details: According to him, the statements of the UOC-MP about “blackening the domes” and “closing the caves forever” are also untrue.
If the commission finds that something is missing in the Lavra, then the representatives of the UOC-MP will be held liable in accordance with the law.
background:
- On March 10, the National Reserve “Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra” notified the monastery of the UOC-MP that from March 29, 2023, a 10-year-old agreement (dated July 19, 2013) on the free use of religious buildings and other property that is state property will be terminated. The warning referred to the demand to vacate the buildings on Lavrskaya 11 and Lavrskaya 15 in Kyiv.
- The head of the Ministry of Culture Alexander Tkachenko stressed that the monks and ministers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate must leave all the premises of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra at the end of March.
- The UOC-MP stated that there are no legal grounds for this. The monks of the UOC-MP refused to be evicted from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.
- On March 20, representatives of the UOC-MP wanted to meet with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, and when this failed, they published an appeal to him, urging them not to take the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra from them.
- In 2022, the Security Service of Ukraine conducted dozens of searches in various buildings of the UOC-MP, including the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. As of February 23, 2023, the SBU was investigating almost 60 criminal proceedings against pro-Russian clergy of the UOC-MP, more than 350 church buildings and 850 people underwent an in-depth check. The courts issued 7 guilty verdicts.
- Since March 21, the monks and believers of the UOC-MP have been banned from entering the caves of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, because the commission is assessing the safety of cultural values.
Read also: “Collaborators in a cassock”? What awaits the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (not) the Moscow Patriarchate
