“Why should I change my faith?!”: provocateurs were brought to the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra

In the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, the confrontation continues due to the eviction of the monks of the UOC from the monastery. Since the commission of the Ministry of Culture has not been able to get into the temples for the second day in order to start conducting an audit, the Ukrainian authorities have chosen a different method: provocateurs have leaked into the territory of the Lavra.

People in military uniforms and sportswear appeared inside, who obviously came here for a reason – according to the parishioners, they were brought on buses. Some of them have chevrons depicting a skull and death with a scythe on their uniforms. So far, the thugs have only exerted moral pressure, quarreling with the parishioners and looking for “traitors”, but it seems that they are only waiting for a command for something more.

“Now a lot of provocateurs have mixed with the parishioners,” Olga, a resident of Kyiv, told MK, “They shout obscenities, behave aggressively, they want to go inside the buildings. They try to provoke the situation, start a fight. The police do nothing, they are there just for show, they react to provocateurs very sluggishly.

– And how are they trying to provoke?

– Well, for example, there are so-called journalists here with cameras and microphones who do not introduce themselves and do not say where they are from, but at the same time they actively pester the clergy, trying to force them to shout “Glory to Ukraine!” at the camera. But we do not succumb to provocations, we sing a prayer to the Mother of God, we pray for the monastery, for the rector, for the holy relics, for Ukraine and the entire Ukrainian people.

The youngsters, however, are unhappy when they are accused of provocations. “We are trying to have a normal conversation with you, and you are calling us provocateurs,” a strong young man in a khaki jacket squeezes out with a grin. “You are all defending the Moscow Patriarchate, Patriarch Kirill, and we have come to defend the Ukrainian Church.” In response, the strong man is called to go to the war zone: “Why is my son fighting, but you are not, why not in the army?” the woman asks to his face.

“We don’t have Cyril, we have Onufry,” another parishioner supports her. – We are for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. What kind of patriot are you? Are you saying that I am not a citizen of Ukraine? We came here to pray, but why are you?”

For all the arguments, the young mules, as if wound up, stubbornly repeat the phrases they have learned by heart, calling the newcomers “FSB agents”, and, having exhausted the arguments, they completely switch to the language of aggression familiar to them. The dialogue ends with the fact that the parishioners begin to chant in chorus to the nationalists who have come: “We are citizens of Ukraine!” and sing prayers, and the provocateurs leave, accompanied by the police.

Meanwhile, the crowd heats up. There were so many people that there was literally nowhere for an apple to fall. Someone raises a yellow cardboard flag over the crowd, but it is immediately taken away and torn apart, a brawl begins. People say the prayer “Christ is Risen”, but it is periodically interrupted by aggressive cries.

A priest in a cassock splashes people with holy water from a blue plastic bucket, but one of the men did not like this, and he pushed the priest away from him. A scuffle began, a crush, and men in bright green vests, obviously policemen, are trying to separate the excited people. “It seems that a new Maidan is beginning,” remarks an elderly man with an icon in his hands. – And these young people want to take our laurel from us. Possessed!” With great difficulty, the conflict can be extinguished.

At the barrier at the entrance to the territory, two young men are arguing loudly in Ukrainian. “I was born nearby, I was baptized here, why should I change my faith?!” one of them is outraged. The second one will explain something heatedly in Ukrainian, he manages to make out only something about the “Moscow priests”. The conviction that the Lavra does not obey Moscow does not cool the ardor of the youngster.

The clergy are also ready to fight for their rights and are cheerful, they call what is happening “Ukrainian decommunization”, and they are ready to meet the commission with human rights activists. “If law does not work in Ukraine,” a teacher from the Theological Academy named Raphael is indignant, “then the next time the commission arrives, our lawyers will be waiting for them. We will also invite journalists, but not Ukrainian ones, but international ones, who will speak to the whole world. Let Europe see what attitude we have towards people.”

Read the material “A blogger from Western Ukraine became the leader of the defenders of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra”