Pochayiv, the Ukraine, March 24, 2015
The police and the Security Service of the Ukraine are trying to find the people who spread the false information on a possible attempt to remove the wonder-working Pochayiv Icon of the Holy Theotokos from the Dormition Pochayiv Lavra and to replace it with a copy, reports the official website of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate with the reference to UNIAN (the Ukrainian Independent Information Agency).
Chief of police in the Ternopil region Alexander Bogomol reported this at a press conference on March 23.
“It was done in an attempt to destabilize the situation in the region, and a juridical appraisal of the situation will surely be given,” A. Bogomol noted. According to him, 80 law-enforcement officers had to go to Pochayiv to maintain order and prevented destabilization in the city.
On March 22 the Ternopil region’s Directorate of the Ministry of the Internal Affairs refuted information on the alleged attempt to replace the wonder-working Pochayiv Icon of the Mother of God with a copy.
Chief of the Ternopil regional police came and visited Abbot of the Dormition Pochayiv Lavra Metropolitan Vladimir.
During their meeting Metropolitan Vladimir disproved information on the alleged removal of the icon from the territory of the monastery and assured that there were and have been no such intentions at all. The police officers made sure that the icon was in its place and under a proper protection.
