The monks of the UOC-MP were obliged to leave the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra due to the cancellation of the lease agreement. Priests refuse to comply with the demand of the Ministry of Culture and the National Security and Defense Council.
The Kiev-Pechersk Lavra National Reserve terminated the agreement on the gratuitous use of buildings and other property with the Monastery of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. Priests and monks had 20 days to leave. That is, on March 30, they should no longer be in the Lavra. The reason for the termination of the contract is the decisions of the National Security and Defense Council, the conclusions of the Interdepartmental Working Group and the letter of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy.
The monks of the UOC-MP, together with the abbot of the Lavra, Metropolitan Pavel, declared that “they are not going to leave anywhere.” According to the metropolitan, “this shrine was created for the whole country, for the whole world.”
Eviction of the UOC-MP from the Lavra: text broadcast
March 31
10.12. Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov promised not to use force against believers and priests of the UOC in order to force them to leave the territory of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.
“We are aware that there is a plan in Moscow to create a picture for Russian TV that we, as authorities, are exerting physical pressure on representatives of the clergy. We will not do this, no one will drag them by the beards,” Danilov said.
10.05. Believers of the UOC did not allow the commission to the premises of the Lavra. The police have not yet intervened.
10.00. The believers have moved to the main entrance of the monastery and are waiting for members of the commission of the Ministry of Culture, who must carry out the process of accepting the monastery buildings for state use.
6.30. Parishioners of the UOC began to gather in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. Near the Exaltation of the Cross Church, the priests of the MP began the service.
March 30
17.41. The court rejected the claim of the UOC-MP in relation to the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra reserve. The Moscow Patriarchate asked not to allow him to be expelled from the territory of the Lavra, but the court did not satisfy the request and recognized the eviction of the priests as legal.
15.42. The head of the Ministry of Culture Alexander Tkachenko spoke about the “brutal behavior” of the priests of the UOC-MP on the territory of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. Due to today’s obstruction of the work of the commission of the Ministry of Culture, a statement was filed with the police. Also, according to Tkachenko, “numerous unknowns” prevented members of the commission from getting inside the building.
15.22. On the fact that the monk of the Lavra obstructed journalistic activities, the capital’s police opened criminal proceedings
12.30. Russian State Duma deputy Vitaly Milonov proposed to send Russian tanks to Kyiv to protect the monks of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.
12.10. The monk of the Lavra hit and broke the camera of the Suspіlne TV channel.
11.00. In fact, the UOC-MP blocked the first day of the work of the commission of the Ministry of Culture. According to the representative of the commission, the door to the temple was closed.
“We will do an external survey, draw up acts within the framework of the law. We have three months for this activity, but today is the first day. As I understand it, this is how they “bless” us,” commented Maryana Tomin, director of the Department of Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture.
10.45. The rector of the Kyiv Lavra, Pavel, said that he would beat the journalists who filmed him with a stick.
10.38. Paul addressed the believers who are blocking the work of the commission: “You stand quietly and humbly. But under no circumstances can any commission work. They do not have permission and rights to do this. four months after the end of the war, they can start communicating with us. They don’t even have a court decision.”
10:26. Metropolitan Pavel said that the commission of the Ministry of Culture would not be allowed into the territory of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.
“They have no right. Who is the National Security and Defense Council? Today there is, and tomorrow – no. I was surprised that he speaks (NSDC Secretary Alexei Danilov – ed.) about the state … The state is the whole people. This is not Danilov, not the president, but all the people … We will not let (the commission – ed.), Pavel said in a comment to reporters.
Also, the media noticed Onufry’s cortege on the territory of the Lavra.
9.15. The UOC-MP did not leave the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, despite the fact that the lease agreement for churches ended on March 29. On the morning of March 30, the priests of the MP began to hold a service. At this time, a commission of the Ministry of Culture should arrive there to assess the state property left by the UOC-MP and return it to the state.
March 29
The last formal service of the UOC-MP took place in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. Law enforcement officers were afraid of clashes or confrontations, but the prayer service was relatively calm. Believers affected only journalists.
In particular, one of the priests began to broadcast the theses of the Kremlin propagandists that Russia allegedly did not unleash a war in the Donbass. The representative of the MP began to deny that the Russian occupiers have been in Donbas since 2014. The priest complains about the Revolution of Dignity and the fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych.
“Why did the Donbass rise up? Because Yanukovych deceived them,” he said.
In response to the journalist’s clarification that the Donbass did not “emerge”, but Russians invaded its territory, the priest said that those areas were allegedly “bombed by Ukrainians.”
“The Ukrainians were the first to bomb. Don’t talk about Donbass. Donbass didn’t want Poroshenko, didn’t want Maidan. What did Maidan give Ukraine? “Remember,” said the father.
