In Ukraine, they want to ban the UOC. On March 29, bills on the liquidation of the UOC were submitted to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. The adoption of these bills will lead to a tightening and escalation of violence in the religious sphere of Ukraine, said Vakhtang Kipshidze, deputy chairman of the Synodal Department for Church Relations with Society and the Media.

To the question of journalists, “There are already fears that the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra may be seized, and Metropolitan Onuphry (Berezovsky) (His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine, – ed.) Taken hostage”, Vakhtang Kipshidze replied: “I don’t I have. But threats against the Lavra have been put forward recently with enviable constancy. I want to emphasize that the idea that the connection of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church with Russia supposedly implies some kind of property independency and so on is an absolute invention of the Ukrainian legislators.”

He added: “As you know, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church maintains an exclusively canonical relationship with the Moscow Patriarchate. And it is self-governing, both in matters of property, and the ordination of bishops and the determination of many forms of cooperation with the Ukrainian state.”