Ukraine war: Orthodox clergy say they will not leave Kiev monastery

  • By Hugo Bachiga
  • BBC News, Kiev

image source, Genia Savelov

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Senior cleric Metropolitan Clement says the government has no legal grounds for expelling them

Orthodox Christian clergy say they will stay in a historic monastery in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, despite a government plan to evacuate hundreds of priests, monks and students.

The Pechersk Lavra is the seat of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which broke away from the Moscow Patriarchate after last year’s Russian invasion.

But Ukrainian officials suspect that some senior clergy maintained ties with the church in Moscow, which they deny.

The Awok center was ordered to leave the site by the end of Wednesday.

The Ukrainian government, which owns a vast 11th-century monastery overlooking the Dnipro River, says the decision was made after the committee discovered multiple breaches of the lease agreement for the complex, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Metropolitan Clement, head of the University of Oklahoma press office, said there were “no legal grounds” for the expulsion, which was announced earlier this month.

“If the government forces us to do this illegally, it’s called totalitarianism,” he told the BBC. “We do not need such a state or government. We have the constitution and the laws. We do not accept other methods.”

The issue is also very political. Ukrainian authorities accuse some University of Oklahoma members of secretly supporting Moscow during the war, despite some leaders’ denunciation of the Russian invasion.

Moreover, a criminal investigation was opened last year after a video emerged showing pro-Russian propagandists singing, referring to the awakening of Mother Russia, while the head of a parish in the Vinnytsia region of central Ukraine was accused of making leaflets. support the invasion.

On Wednesday morning, hundreds of worshipers gathered outside the compound under a light snowfall for mass. As in recent days, the police were checking cars entering and leaving the site, but the situation remained calm.

The expulsion exposed divisions among the Ukrainian Orthodox community. In recent years, many have joined the Autonomous Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), which was granted independence in 2019, while millions still follow the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which split from Moscow last May after centuries under its control.

Lubov Bank, a 60-year-old choir singer from the central city of Poltava, said she had been demonstrating in the Lavra for three days, calling the decision to expel the monastery’s residents a “political decision”. “they [the government] She said, “Don’t follow the constitution. The monks are real angels. I don’t want the authorities to do that.”

image source, Getty Images

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Worshipers gather outside a church in the Pechersk Lavra monastery complex

It is not clear what will happen if the University of British Columbia does not leave the compound, but Ukraine’s Minister of Culture, Oleksandr Tkachenko, has said that authorities will not use force to evict the monks.

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