DECR: All claims of Ministry of Culture on Lavra are an excuse to expel UOC

Archpriest Mykola Danylevych, deputy head of the UOC Department for External Church Relations. Photo: news.church.ua

The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy is making claims against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church regarding the observance of the agreement on the use of the buildings of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra in order to have an excuse to expel the UOC from the monastery, said Archpriest Mykola Danylevych, deputy head of the UOC DECR.

"All the claims of the Ministry of Culture to the monastery regarding violations in the Lavra are not a reason, they are an excuse. An occasion to expel the UOC from the Lavra," Father Mykola wrote on his Telegram channel.

He stressed that "objectively it is not in the interests of the state, but in the interests of one confession, which poses its interests as the interests of the state and tries to convince the state itself as if it benefits from it”.

As reported, the Culture Ministry published on its website a brief report on "violations" by the UOC, which "may be a reason to terminate the agreement on the free use of the buildings and other property" of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.

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