Mikhail Podolyak, chief adviser to Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, described the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) as “an abscess that needs to be cleaned”. He also stressed that Kiev had a “unique chance” to do so in the first months of the conflict.
“It seems to me that this unique chance that everything could be resolved very quickly and painlessly was in the first 3-6 months of the war. At that time, it was possible to physically “cleanse” many pro-Russians,” Podolyak said in an interview with Channel 24.
According to him, doing such “cleaning” is already much more difficult now, but “that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.”
The adviser stressed that the country’s authorities should “follow this path quite strictly” and that as a result, only one canonical church should remain here.
“The UOC will lose all opportunities to influence the inner world of Ukraine. UOC will gradually go to Russian cities and do something there. And in Ukraine there will be only OCU, ”Podolyak concluded.
What’s going on in Lavra?
The conflict between the Ukrainian authorities and the UOC flared up with new vigor after the directorate of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra Reserve announced on March 10 that the permanent lease of the UOC with the Holy Dormition Kiev-Pechersk Lavra was terminated. The clergy were supposed to leave the monastery before March 29.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that if the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra were handed over to the OCU, it would be “another step towards strengthening the spiritual independence” of Ukraine and a way to protect itself from the “Moscow religious manipulators”.
Metropolitan Pavel (Lebed), Governor-General of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra warned In today’s video message that the Ukrainian security forces may begin the offensive soon.
“Dear brothers, we realized that at 17:00 (Moscow time) they wanted to carry out a robbery attack on the Lavra,” said the Metropolitan, referring to the conversations overheard by the parishioners.
The metropolitan called out to the believers by chanting the call to prayer and wished that the attack would not happen again.
There are many people near the Lavra right now. Some are parishioners and defenders of the monastery. They stand behind the barrier and read the Akathistic Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the hands of many icons, RIA Novosti reports.
The opposing group is in favor of the evacuation of the monks, demanding the release of the monastery. Basically, these are the athletic builds that write the media.
On March 31, the management of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra Reserve appealed to the Kiev Economic Court. As the Minister of Culture of Ukraine Oleksandr Tkachenko reported on social networks, the plaintiff demands the removal of “the large number of obstacles put forward by the UOC”. According to him, the commission for the transfer and acceptance of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra “again could not start its work due to the resistance of the UOC.”
religious freedom
President Zelensky had previously named Ukraine the largest region of religious freedom in this part of Europe. According to him, this freedom has been felt since 1991 and “it always will be.”
Vakhtang Kipshidze, deputy head of the synodal department for relations between the Russian Orthodox Church, society and the media, expressed confidence that the West will benefit from the destruction of the UOC. That is why the scandal around the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra is not covered in the Western media – Kipshidze described the separation of Russians and Ukrainians as the goal of the United States and the European Union.
“The world community is silent because they are content with the situation that the UOC will be destroyed and one of the uniting links in the history and culture of the Russian and Ukrainian peoples will be destroyed. It is clear to everyone that one of the aims of the modern policy of the Western countries is to escalate hatred, as well as to separate the Ukrainian and Russian peoples from each other.