Kiev, May 30, 2025
Photo: adobe.com
No matter what U.S. authorities may say or do, Ukraine has no intention of backing down from its campaign against the Orthodox Church, says MP Nikita Poturaev, head of the Parliament’s Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy.
This can be seen in the recent dismissal of the head of the state-operated Kiev Caves Museum and Preserve who was said to be too soft in the battle against the Church and its ongoing presence in the holy monastery.
Responding to the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov’s recent statement that Russia will never abandon the Orthodox people of Ukraine, MP Poturaev said that this was meant to be a sign to Washington to step up and protect the Church.
“They still hope there are people there who live under the illusion that this so-called ROC church and all its branches are actually the Church, and that Russia is a country standing up for Christian values. This is an attempt to pass the ball there, so that they pressure us from abroad: ‘Take your hands off the Christian Church.’ But in reality, I’m convinced these hopes are completely in vain,” the MP said, reports the Union of Orthodox Journalists.
However, those like Vice President J.D. Vance who have spoken out against the persecution of the UOC have done so based on religious freedom principles, not because of any alleged ties between the UOC and Russia.
Earlier this month, Maxim Ostapenko was fired from his position as head of the state’s Kiev Caves Lavra Museum and Preserve. The head of the Ministry of Culture disclosed that the museum head was fired because of his “weak position in implementing the law” on banning the UOC.
The ancient monastery, divided into the Upper and Lower Lavra, has been state owned since Soviet times. The Church has already been evicted from the Upper Lavra and blocked from using its cathedrals, which have since been used by the schismatics for their “services” and the state for various inappropriate events. The Church’s contract for usage of the Lower Lavra, where the monks reside, was also terminated in March 2023, though their eviction was halted by a Kiev court in January 2025.
Despite this judiciary decision, and showing his ideological opposition to his fellow Ukrainians of the UOC, he stated: “The fact that there should be no Moscow spirit in the Lavra should have been the focal point of the Reserve director’s greatest efforts.”
Ostapenko was replaced by Acting Director Svetlana Kotliarevska, who met with “Metropolitan” Epiphany, the head of the graceless “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” on Tuesday, May 27, to discuss cooperation towards “cleansing” the Lavra of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is recognized by the larger Orthodox world as the canonical Church in Ukraine.
Epiphany “expressed confidence that the new leadership of the Preserve will work more actively within the framework of current legislation to completely free the Lavra.”
The state has also launched an investigation of the Kiev Metropolis of the canonical UOC to determine if it has any ties with the Moscow Patriarchate. However, authorities have already declared that the documents of the Patriarchate are authoritative in Ukraine and take precedence over those of the UOC.
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