Photo credit: mos.ru (CC BY 4.0)
The international community should pay attention to the Kiev regime's persecution of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for External Church Relations said. The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) calls for an independent international investigation into the destruction of the UOC.
The actions of the Ukrainian authorities represent flagrant arbitrariness and terror, the ROC claims. At the same time, international human rights structures practically ignore violations of the religious rights of millions of believers.
All this is aggravated by information that the authorities are going to transfer Orthodox shrines abroad.
Kyiv treats the UOC as an enemy, while at the same time supporting the schismatics, encouraging and pushing them to aggression against the clergy and parishioners, the statement says.
Earlier, the Kiev authorities seized the buildings of the Orthodox monastery on the territory of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. According to lawyer Nikita Chekman, who defends the interests of the UOC, the security services and the police cordoned off the buildings of the monastery.
The lawyer stressed that the authorities have no legal grounds for such actions.
Later, parishioners were allowed into the territory of the Lavra after the inspection. Earlier, the administration of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra reserve allowed entry to the lower part of the complex, where the UOC monastery is located, only from 11 a.m. instead of 9 a.m. Believers were waiting for this time, reading prayers.
Russkiy Mir
