The eviction of monks from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra monastery is another act of lawlessness and arbitrariness by Kiev, Gennady Askaldovich, the special representative of the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry on cooperation in the field of observance of the right to freedom of religion, said on Friday.
"If this decision [on the eviction] is implemented, the schismatics will have a direct path to seize and close the great Orthodox shrine. Another act of lawlessness and arbitrariness has taken place on the part of the Kiev regime, which fabricated a lawsuit and received the decision it needed," Askaldovich noted.
Ukrainian media reported that a commission of the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture and Information Policy had sealed four buildings of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.
In June, Ukraine and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) agreed on the transportation of ecclesiastical relics from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra to Europe.
Prior to that, in March, the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) notified about the unilateral termination of the monastery's lease, which meant that the monks had to leave the Lavra. The Lavra had been partly under the jurisdiction of the UOC.
Over the past year, the Ukrainian authorities have waged the persecution against the UOC, due to its ties to the Russian patriarchate. Local authorities in various regions of Ukraine prohibited the activities of the Church. Some members of the clergy have become subject to sanctions. On top of that, a bill to ban the UOC throughout the country has been submitted to the country's parliament.
The Russian Foreign Ministry claimed these actions illegal and designed "to destroy the spiritual affinity of Orthodox believers in the two countries".