Metropolitan Pavel, the vicar of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, said in an interview that SSU officers repeatedly demanded that he recognize the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and promised to initiate criminal proceedings if he refused.

According to the vladyka, the SSU officers held two meetings with him – on the territory of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra Museum and in the SBS building.

The first meeting the employees of the security service began with the words, “You are wrong or not good to talk about Patriarch Bartholomew,” after which they demanded to recognize the OCU.

“I replied that there could not even be a conversation. Then they offered me to make some kind of compromise. What kind of compromise could it be? Probably with my conscience, so that I would give up God. I said that would not do either. Then the person sitting next to Rudnyk (deputy director of the Reserve – Ed.) told me: “Then a criminal case will be initiated against you”, – said Metropolitan Pavel.

The second meeting with representatives of the SSU took place two days after the meeting at the museum. It was attended by the head of the SSU of Kiev and Kiev region and two more officers of the security service, who had already interrogated the vladyka earlier.

“The only thing is that here they were more loyal. I repeated to them again that there can be no compromise with the Church and the state, that I am a citizen of my country, that I fulfill the Law, but I cannot betray Christ, it will not happen. And we will not be evicted either,” Metropolitan Pavel emphasized.