Patriarch Kirill appealed to the UN due to the eviction of the monks of the UOC from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’ appealed to the UN and OSCE Secretaries General António Guterres and Helga Maria Schmid, Pope Francis and other international and religious organizations regarding the eviction of representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC) from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. Statement published on the website of the Department for External Church Relations (DECR) of the Moscow Patriarchate.

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church urged them to make efforts and prevent the forced closure of the monastery, which would lead to a violation of the rights of believers to freedom of religion, guaranteed by the Constitution of Ukraine, the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, etc.

Patriarch Kirill noted in his address that the monastic community is under pressure, including through searches carried out by the security services in November 2022. religious and public figures, directed against the monastery – with calls for its withdrawal from the use of the community and even forcible seizure,” the message says.

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church also noted that there are no sufficient legal grounds for the eviction of the monks, and the work of the commission, which is looking for violations in the economic activities of the monastery, is non-transparent. “Its repressive goal – the complete expulsion of monastics from the Lavra – was not hidden by government officials and representatives of other religious organizations of Ukraine who are under the influence of secular authorities,” the patriarch was quoted as saying.

On March 10, the leadership of the national reserve “Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra” obligated representatives of the UOC to leave the territory and buildings of the Lavra until March 29 due to the termination of the contract. This was reported in the warning of the acting general director of the reserve Alexander Rudnik, which was published on the website of the Lavra, but was later deleted. The letter said that since 2013, an agreement was concluded between the administration of the reserve and the male monastery of the UOC (MP) of the Holy Dormition Kiev-Pechersk Lavra on the free use of religious buildings and other property. The mine also refers to the findings of the Interdepartmental Working Group and the letter of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine dated March 9: they believe that the monastery violated the conditions for the use of state property.