Dumenko: Ukrainian Lavra monks have taken control of Near Caves

Serhiy Dumenko at the Lavra's Near Caves. Photo: OCU's officiaL website

On February 24, 2026, during an address by the head of the OCU, Serhiy Dumenko, at the Exaltation of the Cross Church of the Lavra, he stated that his structure had “taken the Near Caves under its full and lawful guardianship.”

In his words, this development testifies to the “liberation of the Lavra from the yoke of the ‘Russian world’ that had previously been cast upon it.” “Gradually and patiently, yet confidently, we are moving toward the full restoration of this sacred place precisely as a spiritual cell of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” Serhiy Petrovych said.

At the same time, he compared his structure’s taking control of the Near Caves and the churches of the Lower Lavra to the “return of the Church to its shrine in 1988, during the celebration of the Millennium of the Baptism of Rus’-Ukraine.” In that year, the Ukrainian Exarchate of the ROC was still operating in Ukraine. How this aligns with his rhetoric that the Lavra was then allegedly occupied by the “Russian world,” Dumenko did not explain.

He also said he sees symbolism in the fact that the transfer of the caves to the OCU took place on the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that, according to a former OCU cleric, the so-called “OCU Lavra brotherhood” numbers six people. All of them are employees of the Ministry of Culture.

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