The Kremlin condemned the expulsion of priests from Ukrainian churches

Russia condemns the expulsion of monks of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra and regrets that the world community does not condemn these actions. This was stated by the press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov.

“Of course, the Kiev regime with these illegal actions, encroachments on the church, once again demonstrates its character. <...> Once again, I would like to express my deep regret that these illegal actions of the Kyiv regime do not receive proper condemnation from the world community. We condemn them in the strongest terms,” he said.

Answering a question about the purpose of the special operation to save the Orthodox faith, Peskov noted that the actions of the Ukrainian authorities demonstrate “the very nature that we must stop as a result of the operation that is taking place.” “This once again proves and shows that everything we do is absolutely correct,” Peskov stressed.

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 conclusions 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.

On the eve of March 16, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’ named the situation around the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra with a blatant violation of the rights and freedoms of believers in Ukraine, and also compared the ultimatum with “persecution of faith in times of godlessness.”