MOSCOW, March 20 Some of the monks of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra have already left the monastery, said a source familiar with the situation.
«
«Things are being taken out. The monks — some left, the rest are there,» he said.
In addition, the source of the agency added, the parishioners were given books from the monastery library.
The monks of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church were ordered to leave the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra until March 29. The basis for eviction is their violation of the agreement on the use of state property of the national reserve, but what this violation consists of is not disclosed. At the same time, the Minister of Culture of Ukraine Oleksandr Tkachenko said that the monks could stay in the Lavra if they transferred to the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine. to ask for a personal meeting with Vladimir Zelensky and convey to him the position of the church.
Last year, the Kiev regime organized the largest wave of persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the recent history of the country, the largest church in Ukraine, to which millions of believers consider themselves. With the support of the authorities, the schismatic OCU conducts raider seizures of churches, nationalists and schismatics attack the clergy and believers, searches are carried out at priests, bishops, churches and monasteries.
Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Kirill called the persecution of the UOC a mockery of the principle of human rights and freedoms, and called on religious leaders and international figures to prevent the closure of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.