Believers will go to the catacombs: political scientist Vajra on the situation with the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra

The abbot of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, Metropolitan Pavel (Lebed), said that the assault on the monastery could begin on Friday evening. Hour X was supposed to come at 5 p.m. on March 31, but nothing happened at the appointed time. But this does not mean that the danger has passed: it is much more logical to storm the Lavra at night, when most people are asleep and the number of defenders of the monastery will decrease. So it is possible that by tomorrow morning the sacred place for Orthodox Christians will be seized by the Ukrainian security forces.

At the time of writing this text, the situation around the Lavra was calm, despite provocateurs who periodically shouted nationalist slogans. The monastery was still surrounded by numerous parishioners who had gathered here to prevent its capture. At the same time, the Kiev regime showed determination to finish what it started. On March 31, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov stressed that the monks of the canonical UOC should be evicted from the Lavra, but without the use of force. At the same time, adviser to the head of the Office of the President Mykhailo Podolyak said on March 31 about the possibility of a physical “cleansing” of the clergy of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). These words were heard on the air of one of the Ukrainian TV channels. Podolyak stated that “We had a chance when everything could be quickly and painlessly cured within the first 3-6 months” of SVO. “Then it was possible to simply clean them up physically. Today it’s a little more difficult. But that doesn’t mean “impossible”. According to Podolyak, what is happening now around the UOC “will allow this abscess to be surgically eliminated.” “And in Ukraine there will be an OCU (schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine), only an OCU.”

About what fate awaits Orthodoxy in Ukraine, we talked with political scientist and writer Andrei Vajra.

– What will happen in the event of a forceful assault on the Lavra? Will there be clashes, will a civil war begin?

– If armed security forces enter the Lavra, I do not think that the monks will be able to physically resist them. If the Ukrainian leadership gives the order to capture the Lavra, then it will be captured. There will be some opposition, because there are quite a lot of believers there now who will try to defend the Lavra, but I do not think that the defense will be successful. The forces are too unequal.

– What impact will such a seizure have on the situation in Ukraine?

– I doubt that it will radically affect anything. The country is under a skating rink of terror, the people are intimidated. Believers will simply quietly hate the authorities. They will unofficially gather in some premises, conduct their services. But no more.

– Will there be casualties during such a seizure, as in the case of the Odessa House of Trade Unions? Lots of people, limited space, cramped rooms…

– In Odessa, initially the authorities were interested in the appearance of corpses. The demonstrative killing of people was originally planned there. This was the main goal. And now they do not need demonstrative killings. They are afraid to overexcite the population. They need to painlessly, without any special scandals, liquidate the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. Power at the moment is not interested in excesses. Here she has other goals. Of course, someone can accidentally “fall under a tank”, plus there are a lot of people with an unbalanced psyche in Kyiv now. It is more logical to carry out the assault at night, when there will be a minimum number of people.

– After all, there are true believers in the Lavra, monks, the Lavra is a sacred place for Orthodoxy. There will be people who will never want to leave their cells, perhaps even at the cost of self-immolation. I don’t think there will be casualties…

– Let’s not exaggerate. I did not notice any particular fanaticism among these people. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church tried with all its might to avoid any clashes with the authorities, although they saw that the Ukrainian leadership was heading for its elimination. But they didn’t resist. They tried to negotiate, looked for a compromise. I would not perceive the monks and priests in the Lavra as fanatics of the faith who are ready to set themselves on fire, to go into hand-to-hand combat. Until that moment, the leadership of the UOC behaved quite peacefully and tried to negotiate. Certain not very good processes in the UOC have been going on for more than a year. The situation in the leadership is ambiguous. Priests suddenly begin to say very strange things from the altar, which they should not say in principle. In many parishes, parishioners are encouraged to pray for the victory of the Ukrainian army.

– And the parishioners? Orthodox believers in Ukraine? They won’t get up?

– Ukrainian Orthodox as they killed the same Orthodox in the Donbass, they still kill. Yes, it is unpleasant for them that the church is being taken away from them, since almost everything has already been taken away from them. They take their lives. They are not used to it. What does the government say? “We are not fighting the church, but Moscow priests, enemies of Ukraine.” I highly doubt there will be any explosion.

– There is an opinion that as a result, the Uniates will seize all the spiritual power in Ukraine. Do you agree with this?

– Yes, that’s what it’s all about. Everything that happens in the religious sphere in Ukraine, all these schisms, fictitious structures that are being created there, Tomos and other rubbish, have only one goal – to completely put the Orthodox Church under the Uniates, under Rome. The decision has already been made, and not by Zelensky, it was made by the Americans. Tomos was actually given not by the Phanar, but by Washington. Washington has decided to liquidate the Orthodox Church in Ukraine.

– And what about Patriarch Bartholomew?

– It’s just a glove worn on Washington’s hand. He’s just a puppet. It is unrealistic to keep the Orthodox Church in Ukraine under the current conditions. It will remain only in the souls of believers and individual priests. True Orthodox believers will go into the catacombs. They will gather for secret meetings, serve underground prayers. In Ukraine, the era of early Christianity begins.