Former Metropolitan of the UOC Alexander Drabinko published the text of the appeal of the deputies of the parliamentary faction of the Communist Party of Ukraine dated July 12, 2001, in which the parliamentarians ask the head of state Leonid Kuchma to transfer the complex of the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra to the use of the canonical UOC.
Adam Martynyuk headed the list of signatories.
“The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is the historical church of our people, which received the Holy Orthodox Faith from Constantinople a thousand years ago and preserved it in spite of the Uniate persecutions. We owe the Orthodox Church with our writing, culture, statehood, way of life, morality. Thanks to it, our people, in a time of difficult trials, both in the past and in the present, were able to withstand. Now, in conditions of economic, political and social crises, demoralization, expansion of values alien to us, the revival of the country as a free and prosperous state will begin on this foundation.
Let us recall the call of our glorious ancestors – the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks, who selflessly defended our ancient, holy land. Going into battle, they spoke like an incantation: “For the land of Rus! For the Orthodox faith!”, the appeal says.