Russia condemns the decision of the Ukrainian authorities to expel the monks of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate, from its main headquarters, the Kyiv Monastery of the Caves (Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra), a spokesman for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church said Thursday. Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov. “We strongly condemn these actions. We condemn the pressure exerted on the religious, against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” he said at a press conference.
On March 10, the Kyiv-Pechersk national reserve informed the monastery that it was rescinding the contract for free use of the temples and other properties of the religious, for which they had to leave before midnight this Wednesday.
However, the monks have refused to leave and this morning they were still inside, while thousands of parishioners have come to the monastery to pray and offer their support to the religious.
The governor of the Kyiv Monastery of the Caves, Pavlo (Lebed), who the day before denounced the attempts to hinder the course of the lawsuit filed by the religious, lashed out on Thursday against the President of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelensky, who he directly accused of behind this decision.
“I warn you and your pack that our tears will not fall on the ground but on your heads. Do you think that after coming to power on our backs you will be able to behave like this? God will not forgive you or your family! !” he said in a video posted on Telegram.
Pavlo accused Zelensky of having thrown 220 members of the brotherhood out into the streets and of having refused to receive representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. “You did not stop the Minister of Culture, obsessed with rage, malice and hatred, and this means that he does all this with your permission. Misfortune will befall you. Fear!” He sentenced.
Meanwhile, the commission of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, which arrived today at the headquarters of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to make an inventory of the cultural assets kept by the monastery, was unable to enter due to the blockade of the parishioners.
Although the Ukrainian police have not intervened, several Telegram channels and social networks have published photos of law enforcement officers armed with machine guns in the religious headquarters.
