The Ukrainian government has terminated the lease agreement with what it says are pro-Russian monks in the famous Kiev Cave Monastery. However, the monastery should not be evicted, Secretary of Ukraine’s Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov said today.
The contract, which allowed the monks to use part of the Lavra Pechersk monastery free of charge, was terminated on March 29, Danilov said. Everything else will “take place in accordance with the law”. The evacuation process could take weeks. The representatives of the “Moscow Church” would still have to go at some point, he stressed.
The monastery in the Ukrainian capital, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was until recently the seat of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. For a long time, this depended on the Moscow Patriarchate until it officially seceded in May last year due to the Russian war of aggression. However, the Ukrainian authorities accuse her of continuing to be pro-Russian. The famous monastery and its cathedral have been under the independent Orthodox Church since December.
For their part, the monks announced that they would stay as long as possible. “I want to assure you, the law is on our side,” Metropolitan Pavlo said at a morning mass attended by hundreds of believers. “According to the law, according to the constitution, they cannot drive us out.” The case is now in the hands of the courts. “You do not have the right to expel clergy (…) until a court decision has been made.”
