‘They are Taking American Money’ – Tensions Boil at Kyiv's Pechersk Lavra on Eviction Day

Armed police inspected vehicles entering and leaving the Pechersk-Lavra monastery complex on Wednesday, the deadline for those remaining loyal to Moscow to pack up and leave the holy site. In the meantime, a couple of hundred worshippers had gathered for a service there on a cold, wet, and snowy day in Kyiv.  The representatives of the Moscow Patriarchate did not evacuate today, as they continue to assert their right to remain there, pending judicial process. Their supporters were vocal in their protests at the Lavra on Wednesday, shouting angrily at journalists and decrying what they saw as religious oppression. Some said they were ready to die for the church.  The Lavra, also known as the Monastery of the Caves, has been home to approximately 1,000 followers of Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, long considered by many Ukrainians as a fifth column of the Kremlin. The massive monastery complex is also full of precious religious artifacts and relics. The police inspections are mostly targeted at safeguarding those priceless icons, paintings, crucifixes, etc. to ensure that they are not removed from the government-owned site.  When asked why the check of vehicles coming and going from the church was being conducted in such a hands-off manner, one of the officers, speaking on condition of anonymity told Kyiv Post: “Some of us have our own ideas of how things should be done.”