According to the Ukrainian company’s lawyer, Nikita Chekman, a commission was set up to seal the buildings. “In this regard, we ask you to vacate the premises of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra and hand over the keys to the reserve,” reads the document published by Chekman on his Telegram channel.
The statement said that if the priests refuse to release the keys to the premises, the locks will be changed and the premises sealed.
For its part, the IOU pointed out that the request to evacuate the buildings was unlawful and described such actions as arbitrary.
A court appeal against the unilateral termination of the contract has been filed since today. The court made no decision on this. Consequently, the reservation has no legal basis for such action,” the church said.
The IOU’s legal department urged reserve and commission members not to break the law and await a court decision.
The authorities of Ukraine have been trying since early 2023 to evict the priests of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church from the Cave Monastery, one of the first in ancient Russia.
During the Soviet era, the monastery was nationalized, and in the 1980s its buildings began to be usufructed, so they did not have the status of church property.
Last March, the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine informed canonical UOC that it was unilaterally breaking the lease of the Pechersk Lavra and that the monks had to vacate it, but they refused.
Later, Ukraine’s culture minister said that the monks could stay in the cave monastery if they agreed to join the schismatic Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
But the superior of the monastery, Metropolitan Pavel, said that there could be no compromise on the matter and that the monks would remain in the cave monastery. Then Pavel was put under house arrest.
In the above monastery live more than 200 monks and novices, hundreds of future priests, students of the Theological Academy and the seminary. It also houses the administrative center of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the residence of its primate, Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine Onufri.
Advisor to President Vladimir Zelenskyy’s office, Miajíl Podoliak, last March declared that Ukraine should have only one church, in reference to the secessionist church, and called for a “physical cleansing” of the canonical church.
A bill banning the activities of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, historically subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate, has been submitted to the Ukrainian Parliament.
lam/gfa