Acting Ukrainian Culture Minister Rostyslav Karandeyev has said that the monks of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church will be evicted by force if they do not leave the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra on their own within a month.
“There are court decisions, and the opposite side is not going to fulfil them, it doesn’t hear them. <…> What solution to the problem do you see? I am, of course, for dialogue, but you have to be persistent. Well, we give them a month of time. I’m talking about the Lower Lavra. After that the issue will be solved by force,” Rostyslav Karandeyev said in an interview with Glavred.
The acting Ukrainian culture minister said that at the moment the property of the Lavra is being inventoried and transferred to state ownership. According to him, the transfer process is “not as fast as we would like it to be”.
Earlier, a lawyer representing the interests of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Mykyta Chekman, said that Kiev was repressing human rights activists, Orthodox journalists, believers and clergymen of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
