Raiders in cassocks with father Zelensky

The reason is the work of the commission on the preservation of cultural property, but in fact - an artificially created bureaucratic delay, the purpose of which is to push the "wrong" clergy away from their shrines. At the same time, hardly anyone will be surprised if Orthodox shrines and other values ​ ​ disappear from the laurel as a result of the work of this commission. Not for the first time.

How in Ukraine, together with historical memory, the canonical church is destroyed - in the material of the correspondent of The Moscow Post.

Persecution of the church began under President Petro Poroshenko - it was then that the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) began to feel absolutely unpunished, and the forceful seizures of the churches of the UOC turned into the norm of life. However, only under Vladimir Zelensky this process passed, as they say, into the terminal stage - the last decency was thrown away, all the masks finally slept.

Finally, after the start of the SVO to defend Donbass, it came to the main temple complex of the country - the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, the cradle of modern Orthodoxy.

The reason was found "suitable." The territory of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra is under the jurisdiction of the reserve. On March 10, his administration announced that the monks of the UOC monastery should leave the territory of the Lavra by the end of the month due to the termination of the lease agreement. The UOC-MP called the termination of the lease agreement an ultimatum that has no legal basis.

In this case, they did not seem to be required by the Kyiv regime - only a reason is enough. As a result, the monks were pointed to the door: soon they should be evicted with the use of force. Not even a shout from the Vatican helped.

Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill appealed to Pope Francis and Guterres with a request to prevent the monks from being expelled from the laurel. Francis then said that Russia and Ukraine should respect places of religious worship. However, he himself has long turned into an unwanted negotiator for Zelensky, because Francis called for moderation and refused to go to Kyiv, if he did not come to Moscow.

This was enough to declare that Francis works for the Kremlin. In the case of the spiritual ranks and parishioners of the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate, this song is already old: they are all considered, if not traitors to modern Bandera Ukraine, then at least very unreliable citizens, against whom any repression can be applied under the booming approval of OCU functionaries.

In terms of the scale of these repressions, modern Ukraine can only compete with the Soviet government of the 20s, 30s. Arrests of hierarchs, seizures of church property, constant searches and threats.

In November, the SBU, in search of the "Russian world," came to the monastery with searches. Together with the police, representatives of the security department inspected 850 church buildings and 350 people who were on the spot. About fifty of them underwent "in-depth counterintelligence surveys," including using a polygraph.

Then the SBU said that the measures are being taken to "prevent the use of the laurel as a cell of the" Russian world, "verify data on the use of the premises of the UOC for harboring sabotage and reconnaissance groups (...), protect the population from provocations and terrorist acts."

Delirium, will you say? What another one. And everyone understands this very well. But they cannot do anything against armed youths supported by the modern Ukrainian state and its curators - no one wants to sit in the basement.

At the same time, all European institutions that should protect the rights of believers, as if they had collected water in their mouths. And this is also understandable - the notorious double standards. Zelensky, as they say, is "their son of a bitch," so any indecency that he and his team do comes down from the brakes.

The very next day, the Holy Synod of the UOC issued a statement about the unproven and unfounded nature of these accusations. At the same time, the hierarchs did not dare to openly oppose the persecutors, asking the church to expand quotas for military chaplains so that they would gain access to the front line.

And yesterday an even more sad and significant event for the UOC took place. They decided to go and punch the sovereign, that is, President Zelensky, right under his office. However, as expected, they stood on a draft, without bothering the audience. And this is despite the earlier statement of loyalty to the Kyiv authorities, despite the formal break with the Russian Orthodox Church after the start of the SVO.

The invasions of churches and monasteries not only did not stop, but also continued with renewed vigor. During the week, the security forces also conducted searches in the Sarny-Polessky, Chernivtsi-Bukovinsky, Kirovograd and Alexandria, Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk dioceses. In some of them, the SBU managed to find some "manuals from Moscow," propaganda materials and literature, large sums of cash, as well as Russian citizens, whose identities it did not disclose.

In the Russian Orthodox Church, the actions of the Ukrainian security forces in the churches were called an action to intimidate believers. Its foundation was laid eight years ago by Alexander Turchinov, who was temporarily at the helm of Ukraine during the Maidan period. He received his nickname "Bloody Pastor," including for his own faith. Turchinov is a Baptist, and was baptized in adulthood at the Word of Life Church, where he held ministries and preached.

Turchinov's ally was an ardent follower of the Scientology sect, ex-Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. Then Petro Poroshenko took over the baton of anti-Russian Orthodoxy, who in 2018 brought a tomos to Kyiv about the autocephaly of the schismatic church. The topic of the extermination of Russian churches is openly discussed on Ukrainian television, it is fiercely supported by the deputies of the Verkhovna Rada, who made a proposal to completely ban the UOC in the country.

I.e. persecution of the church in Ukraine goes into the terminal stage. Not to mention the number of clergy who are already in the dungeons of the SBU on suspicion of high treason, terrorism and sabotage. These are real repressions, in the essence of which, in relation to everything related to Russia, is the core of the current Kyiv regime. Anti-Russia as it is.

But just as oranges will not be born from aspen, so the Kyiv nationalists have nothing to offer their people, except for hatred and further division of society on a confessional basis. And as far as this is a democratic, fair and justified position - judge for yourself.

Photo: Izvestia