Lotysh: First they called me a traitor, and then I went to OCU

Lotysh is receiving a cross from the Primate of the UOC having agreed on the betrayal with Dumenko. Photo: UOC

The only monk of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra who betrayed the UOC, Avrahamiy Lotysh in an interview with the propagandist of the OCU Ya. Samokhvalova detailed his move to Dumenko’s structure.

According to him, it is wrong to think that he was considered a traitor only after he went to the OCU. It was vice versa.

"They started calling me a traitor in the monastery all the time. The situation in the monastery was becoming more and more tense. My military friends offered to introduce me to Metropolitan Epifaniy," said Lotysh.

According to him, he agreed on everything with Dumenko back in autumn 2022, but until the end of March 2023 lived in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, communicated with the brethren and pretended that nothing had happened.

"In the winter, I was still living in the Lavra. If I immediately stated that I was going, I should have left immediately," Lotysh logically reasoned. “A few days before my statement about the transition to the OCU (29 March – Ed.), I took a small bag and left. I lived at St. Michael’s".

According to him, in Serhiy Dumenko he "immediately felt a father of the church, a very close person in spirit". Moreover, close to such an extent that Lotysh "even breathed easier".

He assures that the brethren of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra do not care what jurisdiction to be under: "When I was under the jurisdiction of the MP, the brethren used to say the same thing: we don't care whether Onuphry or Epifaniy." But Lotysh could not explain why none of them ever defected to the OCU. He suggests that the brethren were intimidated by Metropolitan Pavel, who is now under house arrest in Voronkiv near Kyiv.

Nevertheless, Lotysh assures that "the OCU monastery is being formed". According to him, Dumenko managed to gather 7 people for the Lavra (a week earlier he spoke of 12).

With these people he lives in Building 70 (His Beatitude Onuphy’s residence) According to him, the Ministry of Culture has extended the lease of the Dormition and Refectory Churches by the OCU only until the end of 2023. What will happen next, Lotysh does not know.

Earlier Lotysh said that he is considered a traitor but he is like Mazepa.

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