On January 12, 2023, the OCU stated that she, as the “successor of the Kyiv Metropolis”, has the full right to her inheritance, that is, to the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, and that “Muscovy took Ukrainian shrines into spiritual occupation for more than three centuries.” This is stated on the Facebook page of this structure.

“For the Ukrainian people, it is a great spiritual joy that the ancient Ukrainian shrine, in the center of the Ukrainian capital, has finally begun to free itself from spiritual occupation. And that for the first time in several hundred years, a prayer led by hierarchs in the native language of the native Ukrainian church, a recognized local, autocephalous OCU, which is the successor of the ancient Kyiv Metropolis, sounded in the main church of the Lavra, ”the OCU noted.

“Yes, it is our church, which has a patriarchal and synodal tomos of autocephaly, that is the canonical successor of the ancient Kyiv Metropolis, and hence its historical heritage. But this is by no means a legacy of the current jurisdiction of an indefinite status, which until recently was not afraid to be called the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate. The Russian Church occupied and actually appropriated the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra in the 17th century, ”the OCU said.