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Gedung each Kiev-Pechersk Lavra in Kiev, Ukraine. Photo/sputnik
KIEV – Metropolitan Bishop Pavel, deputy of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra in the Ukrainian capital, said on Friday (31/3/2023) that he fears an attack on the Eastern Orthodox cave monastery as early as Friday evening.
“We have just learned of their plan… to launch a hit-and-seize attack on the Lavra. Our men have heard these men talking on the phone as they planned the attack,” he said in a video address.
A dozen dissidents of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) have gathered outside the Lavra where monks loyal to the UOC have been hiding for two days.
The monks defy orders from the Ukrainian government to vacate the monastery.
Ukraine’s National Kyiv-Pechersk Historical and Cultural Reserve gave the monks until March 29 to leave the sprawling cave monastery after Ukraine’s interdepartmental commission accused the UOC of violating the terms of an agreement on the use of state property.
Ukraine’s Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko said the monks could stay if they joined the Ukrainian schismatic Orthodox Church.
The Ukrainian government’s decision was allegedly “stimulated through the cooperation of specialists and law enforcement officers.”
Since the start of the Russian special military operation, the Ukrainian authorities have intensified their crackdown on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.
In January, the Ukrainian government submitted a bill to parliament to ban the activities of “Russia-affiliated” religious organizations in the country.
(she)
