The Information and Educational Department of the UOC publishes a commentary by the Head of the Department, Metropolitan of Nizhyn and Priluky Kliment, on the situation around the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra as of March 23, 2023.

“Currently, services are being held in the Lavra, church life is taking place, but anxiety is naturally felt, because there is no specifics from the state regarding their plans and the grounds for all the statements that were voiced,” Metropolitan Kliment said.

According to him, “Minister of Culture and Information Policy, Mr. Tkachenko, turned this whole situation with the resettlement of monks into a certain television series,” because each new statement by Mr. Minister denies the previous one.

“Purely political blackmail: there is a need to resettle the monks of one denomination in order to give a place here to representatives of another denomination. When it became clear that another confession did not have those representatives and there would be no one from the OCU to simply live here and maintain this entire complex of structures, including caves and temples, not to mention other structures, then they resorted to some insinuations under miserable persuasion “stay here, just go to the OCU,” said the Chairman of the Information and Education Department of the UOC.