We will not pull them by their beards, but decisions will be made – Security Council Secretary on UOC-MP eviction from Lavra
Oleksii Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council, stresses that the members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) will leave the territory of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, since the rental period is over, but this process requires time.
Source: Danilov on the broadcast of Ukrainian radio station Radio Svoboda
Quote: "Let’s be patient. Trust me, the decision will be made. Of course, nobody is going to pull them out of there by their beards, legs or other limbs. They [the UOC-MP clergy – ed.] are a project that was worked out by the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia. They were told how to behave."
Details: He added that the majority of the clergy does not understand "what process they are participating in."
Quote: "But I can officially state that the number of people who cooperate with the FSB of Russia, with the 1st, the 5th, the 9th FSB Directories, is, unfortunately, extremely high.
This is a complicated issue but we will definitely deal with it. We will not follow the procedure FSB hopes for."
Details: Danilov assured the public that the Ukrainian laws will certainly be followed in the territory of Ukraine, and all citizens will obey these laws.
He called on Ukrainians not to buy into the provocations that "the FSB worked out with some individuals who have been on the territory of our country before, and for that have a passport of our country."
Danilov remarked that the spreading of the Moscow Patriarchate churches in Ukraine was a Russian special operation since 1991 – priests in robes and with crucifixes came to the mayors of cities and villages and asked for land to build a church, and the mayors gave them land as they considered it all "holy".
Thus, a lot of UOC-MP churches were built in Ukraine because its popes were "much quicker" and were actively conducting the "special operation of taking over our territory" through the church.
Previously: The UOC-MP has not left the territory of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra (Kyiv Monastery of the Caves), despite the fact that its lease agreement has expired on 29 March; as of the morning of 30 March, UOC-MP priests are still holding worship in the monastery.
Parishioners belonging to the UOC-MP have blocked entry to a Ministry of Culture commission which was supposed to be conducting an inventory of the property of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra Reserve. They were incited to do so by Pavlo, the abbot of the Lavra.
Pavlo also threatened to beat a journalist with a stick. Subsequently, he was served with a notice of suspicion and placed under house arrest at his home in Kyiv Oblast.
Background:
- In March 2023, the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra National Reserve terminated the agreement with the UOC-MP that allowed the church to use the premises of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra free of charge. The UOC-MP clergy have been ordered to vacate all premises of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra by the end of March.
- The priests of the UOC-MP should have left the monastery on 29 March after holding their last service there.
- Despite that, Lavra's abbot, Metropolitan Pavlo, said he did not intend to do that and filed a lawsuit against the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra National Reserve.
- He also openly threatened Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and said that the Minister of Culture and Information Policy, Oleksandr Tkachenko, was "possessed by a diabolical madness".
- Oleksii Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council, stressed that the clergy of the UOC-MP would not be evicted from the Kyiv Cave Monastery by force.
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