The court denied the UOC the right to worship in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra

Disgraced priests are now beaten right in front of TV cameras

The Zelensky administration does not stop trying to twist the arms of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Yesterday, the Kyiv Economic Court considered in essence the claim of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra for the right to worship in the Assumption Cathedral, the Refectory Church and the Refectory Chamber. They did not bother to invite a single representative of the monastery to the meeting.

The decision to refuse to satisfy the claim against the National Cultural Reserve “Kiev-Pechersk Lavra” was taken by the Economic Court immediately. As Archpriest Nikita Chekman, who acts in the interests of the UOC as a lawyer, said, there is administrative pressure on the court.

Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine Oleksandr Tkachenko, referring to the “fair reaction of the judicial body to the lawlessness that is happening in the Lavra,” again recalled the three-day period during which the monks of the UOC are supposedly required to leave the reserve.

Member of the Verkhovna Rada Artyom Dmitruk from Odessa, representing the inter-factional association “Reasonable Politics”, described the official as “a super-incompetent person in his field.” According to him, the minister demonstrates the barbaric attitude of the Servants of the People towards Orthodox believers. As for the Lavra, according to Dmytruk, “it was, is and will be Ukrainian, and most importantly – God’s!”

At the same time, the people’s deputy recalled the collected 25,000 verified signatures on the website of the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers under a petition about the expediency of dismissing Oleksandr Tkachenko from his post: “Therefore, it’s time for him to leave his post before the respected ministry is disgraced even more.”

Meanwhile, Volodymyr Zelensky’s entourage does not abandon attempts to win the UOC over to their side. To do this, they use the influence on the higher clergy of the heads of individual departments of the OP, who are remembered for their effective work in the interests of ex-president Viktor Yanukovych and the Party of Regions that supported him.

But this is where the hitch happened: Metropolitan Onufry of Kiev and All Ukraine does not want to go “in the service” of Zelensky in any way.

If some people in the administration of the President of Ukraine did not still have a glimmer of hope that Onufry would eventually surrender and bless the resubordination of the flock, the Ukrainian security forces would have staged a raid on the Lavra long ago.

On May 30, with the help of such dirty methods, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the republic helped the believers of the village of Chernyakhiv, Kagarlyk district, Kiev region, “voluntarily” move from the UOC to the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The rector of the Church of the Holy Great Martyr Demetrius of Thessalonica, Archpriest Mikhail Glushchak, told the correspondent of the official website of the UOC, how the head of the local police department, Major Andrey Lysy, approached him from behind and pulled his adherents out of the crowd with force. When the 90-year-old woman tried to stand up for the elderly father, another policeman pushed the woman in the chest with force. “Our other parishioners were forcibly stuffed into a car and taken to the national police station,” Father Mikhail added. “Women were dragged by the hair.”

Law enforcement officer Lysy was also seen in other areas of the Kyiv region, where churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church were seized. I won’t be surprised if this subject soon appears at the head of semi-criminal elements and in front of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.

From the unceremonious seizure of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, the Ukrainian security forces are kept only by the Orthodox Cossacks constantly present on its territory and correspondents of foreign media.