NSDC secretary on searches at UOC: “There may be people working for Russia”

Oleksii Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council

The Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Oleksii Danilov, stated that the searches at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra were linked to suspicions that there may be people within the Ukrainian Orthodox Church who are working for Russia. This was reported by The Guardian.

The raid on Pechersk Lavra was part of a broad sweep of the church’s property. The SBU said that in all about 850 people had their identities checked and 50 underwent “in-depth counterintelligence interviews”, including with the use of a polygraph.

“Certain documents were found there. And certain citizens were found there … most likely citizens of the Russian federation. And now we’re trying to find out what they do in there and why they were there,” Danilov said.

The NSDC Secretary added that the investigation “is still at a very sensitive stage.”

“All I can say is that certain institutes are carrying out actions that are not in their charters. They are not going to be able to do that. It doesn’t matter if it is civil or religious or other institutions, it is a question of the national security of our country. And for many years we closed our eyes to what was happening,” the official added.

Oleksii Danilov also stated that it is necessary to “to divide religion and the civilians that have certain positions in the church who could possibly work for the aggressor state.”

As a reminder, on November 22 the Security Service of Ukraine carried out searches at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, other monasteries of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and premises of the Sarny Eparchy.

As previously reported by the UOJ, Metropolitan Clement (Vecheria) stated that the SBU had not presented any charges against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

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