Kiev-Pechersk Lavra announces a threat of radicals committing an attack

Vicegerent of the Holy Dormition Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, Metropolitan of Vyshgorod and Chernobyl Paul, fears an attack on the shrine by representatives of radical forces on October 14-17, during the Feast of the Intercession, ”Vesti” reports.

Vladyka wrote letters with a request to stop all attempts of aggression against the Lavra which are addressed to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister Vladimir Groisman, to the Prosecutor General and the Security Service, as well as Head of the National Police Sergey Knyazev and Interior Minister Arsen Avakov. "We very much hope that people will not raise their hand against the shrine and this action will not happen. We do not do politics, we pray. But I constantly receive calls from different political forces warning me about a possible attack on us."

OUN leader Nikolai Kokhanivsky said that their organization, together with the "Right Sector", "Freedom" and the National Corps, would hold a torchlight procession from Shevchenko Park to the Kontraktova Square through the Maidan and Mikhailovskaya St. 10-20 thousand people are supposed to participate in the march.

Adviser to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Ivan Varchenko has not heard about the plans of radicals, but he promises that in case of emergency, all secured facilities will be protected.

Metropolitan Paul remembered that a year ago, at this very time, up to five hundred people in balaclavas gathered near Lavra, who insulted believers and threw stones at the shrine.

Last year, on October 14, participants of the procession "March of the Nation", which pulled together supporters and representatives of the Civil Corps "Azov", public organization "S14", the Volunteer Ukrainian Corps "Right Sector", used pyrotechnical devices near the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.

In July of the current year, nationalist Victor Trigub spoke about the talks he’d had with the veterans of the volunteer militia so that together "hey would take the Lavra Reserve under the control of Ukraine." Ex-adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Ilya Kiva in July last year announced the desire to release the "Lavra from the Moscow FSB ghouls in cassocks who captured and raped the shrine."

On June 16, 2016 MPs of the Verkhovna Rada came up with the draft law "On the Complex of the Kiev-Pechersk and Pochaev Lavras" which foresees turning both monasteries into historical and cultural reserves.

Read also