Kiev, August 21, 2025
Fortress Lavra
Employees of the Ukrainian state’s Kiev Caves Lavra Museum and Preserve have been photographed and videotaped desecrating relics that have been treasured in the Caves for hundreds of years.
On August 19, the Telegram channel Fortress Lavra published material showing museum staff removing reliquaries from the Caves and handling them outdoors.
“The reliquaries with the relics of the saints have been brought out into the street. Preserve workers are performing some kind of manipulations with them. They’re reaching inside with their hands, drying something out. This is savage, horrifying, and contemptuous for our saints,” the channel writes.
The Union of Orthodox Journalists describe museum staff in plain clothes bringing reliquaries into garden areas, with empty reliquaries and cleaning solutions photographed near the Cave entrances. Items, possibly vestments or other sacred objects, were hung on nearby fences.
Fortress Lavra
The monastery's brotherhood hasn’t had access to the relics since March of this year. Previously, monks would annually perform a reverent re-clothing of the saints’ remains with prayers.
That month, a government commission arrived to “inspect” the relics. The commission cut locks to access the Near and Far Caves, which house the incorrupt relics of more than 120 saints.
The monastery’s lawyer, Archpriest Nikita Chekman, said that the monks refused to participate in the commission’s work, calling it “blasphemous” to inspect relics as “cultural values.” He noted the commission included various scientists and medical professionals, including “anatomists, histologists, embryologists, and in particular, a doctor of veterinary sciences.”
The Ministry of Culture created the commission on March 5, tasking it with checking “the presence of the remains of saints in the tombs” and “determining the historical and scientific value of the remains.”
It was also reported that DNA testing is planned.
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