People’s Deputy of Ukraine, member of the profile committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on law enforcement Artem Dmytruk sent a deputy appeal to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Igor Klymenko regarding the events around the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, “which began to occur in March 2023 and continue to this day in the city of Kiev with the assistance of officials of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy. The deputy announced this on his Telegram channel, reports the Information and Education Department of the UOC.
According to the deputy, an attempt is being made to seize the Lavra “against the backdrop of recent religious conflicts due to systematic violations of the constitutional rights of citizens of Ukraine – believers of the UOC and as a result of illegal organized raider attacks, illegal seizures of temples and churches of the UOC throughout Ukraine.”
Artem Dmytruk stressed that “the aforementioned seizures of temples are always carried out by a group of people who are not parishioners of the UOC at all, and are of a systemic nature. This means that these offenses are not random events, but an integral part of a wider phenomenon taking place in Ukraine.”
“Such unlawful actions have very serious negative and grave consequences for both society and the state as a whole. In particular, this may lead to further conflicts and confrontations between various religious groups and mass violations of public order,” he wrote.
The chosen one draws the attention of the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs that “the indicated illegal actions have signs of a criminal offense under Parts 1-3 of Art. 161 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine “Deliberate actions aimed at inciting national, regional, racial or religious enmity and hatred”.
The deputy called on Igor Klymenko “to eliminate violations of the current legislation, to give a proper assessment and appropriate legal qualification to the illegal actions of all persons involved in the specified criminal offense, and to resolve the issue of bringing the perpetrators to responsibility established by law.”
