Yuri Shukhevich demands to audit Ukrainian Lavras

Yuri Shukhevich

MP from the "Radical Party" faction Yuri Shukhevich was concerned about the property of Orthodox shrines of the UOC. On his Facebook page, Shukhevich published a parliamentary appeal demanding that the authorities should "count and register historical and cultural values" kept in the Pochaev and Kiev-Pechersk Lavras. In the document of September 4, a former nationalist leader of the UNA-UNSO (the Ukrainian National Assembly – Ukrainian People's Self-Defence) refers to media reports that the Lavra is allegedly "preparing to export the church property".

In this regard, the people's deputy called on the authorities not only to carry out an audit but also "to provide round-the-clock control over the export of property from these and other religious buildings under the control of the UOC MP".

"We urge society not to be indifferent and, not relying on power, resolutely protect our spirituality, our history," Shukhevich said on Facebook.

Earlier, some media circulated the false information on the supposed export of the church property from the Pochaev Lavra to Russia. UOC officials refuted this information, calling it "a bare-faced lie".

As the UOJ reported, the other day the head of the UOC KP Filaret met with the acting director of the "Kiev-Pechersk Lavra" reserve Alexander Rudnik and demanded the transfer of Lavra building 19 to the Kiev Patriarchate. He insisted that this should be done shortly.

In turn, Hegumeness Seraphima, abbess of the Odessa St. Michael's Convent, chairman of the Synodal Committee of the UOC "Church and Culture", stressed that the faithful will defend the shrines of the UOC until their last breath.

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