Why Zelensky Received the "OCU Lavra Vicar"

The "OCU Lavra Vicar" supports Zelensky in all his endeavors. Photo: UOJ

On July 11, 2026, a rather telling event took place – Zelensky received the "OCU Lavra Vicar" Avraamiy Lotysh at the Office of the President.

It should be noted that throughout his entire presidency, Zelensky had never received representatives of Christian jurisdictions at his official residence – not even the leaders of the OCU and the UGCC, which are extremely loyal to the authorities. In 2019, immediately after his inauguration, he held meetings with UGCC head S. Shevchuk, UOC-KP head F. Denisenko, and OCU head S. Dumenko, but those meetings took place "away from home." At the OP itself – that is, "at home" – the president mostly received Jewish guests.

This raises the question: how did Lotysh manage to obtain an audience? We still remember the events of 2023, when UOC synodal members led by Metropolitan Onufriy came to the OP building. The hierarchs sought to speak with the president following the authorities' sudden attack on the Church. Zelensky refused to receive them, and the security personnel would not even allow the elderly hierarchs to sit on a concrete block by the entrance. Shortly afterward, the authorities activated an air raid siren, which fell silent the moment the synodal members left Bankova Street.

Hence the question: what was it about Lotysh that so interested Zelensky that he honored him with a meeting at his residence?

Judging by the press release about the meeting published by Lotysh, nothing particularly significant was discussed. He thanked the president "for his constant attention to the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, for his openness to dialogue, and for his concern for the fate of one of Ukraine's greatest shrines."

For him, it was "valuable to be reassured once again that the President is deeply informed about the life of the Lavra." He affirmed that Zelensky "knows well all the challenges facing the monastery today, understands our needs, pays careful attention to every issue, and sincerely strives to help."

Meanwhile, Zelensky himself has never mentioned in any of his statements that he takes an interest in the "challenges" faced by OCU representatives at the Lavra. Moreover, unlike Poroshenko, who publicly displays his piety, Zelensky has not once made the sign of the cross at any religious event. Lotysh's panegyrics therefore appear, to say the least, exaggerated. Nevertheless, the "OCU Lavra Vicar" was admitted to the residence and was even allowed to take a joint photograph. Zelensky's expression in it is not particularly welcoming – yet, there it is. How should one interpret such a meteoric rise?

A "Convenient" Strike on the Lavra

Not so long ago, Lotysh was complaining about neglect and even the suppression of the OCU at the Lavra by the authorities. In his words, "there are restrictions that exist, that prevent us from moving forward, from developing further."

But on June 15, an event occurred that changed everything dramatically – the Russian Federation's strike on the Dormition Cathedral. Within a matter of weeks, the Lavra found itself at the center of attention not only of the authorities and Ukrainian society, but of the international community as well. Zelensky and other senior officials suddenly remembered that the Lavra is a sacred shrine. The country's leadership began bringing foreign delegations to the monastery to show them the aftermath of the strike, and Zelensky even showed Trump a photograph of the burning Dormition Cathedral. Despite the fact that only the roof was damaged, the authorities have already coordinated financing for the cathedral's restoration with several countries, and the damage estimates voiced by officials continue to grow.

In other words, the strike on the Lavra yielded considerable political and financial dividends for the authorities. The situation was summed up by MP Andriy Osadchuk, who called the consequences of the Russian Federation's attack on the cathedral a "convenient" event for attracting Western countries' attention to Ukraine. According to him, the strike proved to be an effective instrument for combating the "routinization" of the news agenda.

The attack on the Lavra proved even more advantageous for Lotysh, who, as the "host," received various delegations and showed them the destruction. It was he who conducted the first tour of the damaged cathedral for Zelensky, and who subsequently accompanied the president during the Constitution Day celebrations held at the Lavra.

From an unknown "nobody," Lotysh suddenly transformed into a figure who is on handshaking terms with the country's top officials – in terms of communication with the authorities, he is now capable of rivaling Serhiy Dumenko himself. But even such a "lucky ticket" would hardly have sufficed without the personal qualities of the "OCU Lavra Vicar."

Want to Build a Career? Flatter and Ingratiate

At state events at the Lavra, Lotysh personally accompanied the Zelensky couple around the grounds and did not leave their side for a moment.

Addressing Olena Zelenska, he obsequiously asked her to "take care of the president": "Agreed? He is needed now more than ever. Without him, we will never be able to win this war. We are happy right now – for you, for our army, and for our Ukraine." As he said this, an ingratiating, fawning smile played on Lotysh's face.

We saw the same smile when Lotysh kissed the hand of His Beatitude Onufriy after being awarded the right to wear a second pectoral cross.

There is no doubt that with the same expression on his face, Lotysh expressed equally fervent gratitude to the Lavra's abbot, Metropolitan Pavlo: first for being received into the brotherhood, and then for the rank of archimandrite and the position of sacristan. And after 2023, he accepted benefactions from Dumenko as well, recounting that he "immediately felt a father of the church, a person very close in spirit" – so close that he "even found it easier to breathe."

Each time, he said precisely what his interlocutor wanted to hear. And there is no doubt that in his dealings with Zelensky, Avraamiy Lotysh adheres to the same rule: he is prepared to support absolutely everything initiated by the current president – including openly anti-church ideas.

And this is not even about the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Zelensky's latest idea – the construction of a Pantheon of Ukrainian heroes on the grounds of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra – cannot but shock. The word "pantheon" translates as "temple of all gods." And although no explicitly pagan meaning is formally attached to it today, the essence remains the same: the state is proposing that the nation's heroes be venerated as new idols.

Particular attention must be paid to who exactly is to be buried in the Pantheon: OUN-M leader Andriy Melnyk, OUN-B leader Stepan Bandera, Supreme Ataman of the UNR army and navy Symon Petliura, and others. One may argue endlessly about their political activities, but one thing unites them beyond dispute: each of their hands is stained with rivers of blood – both Ukrainian and foreign.

The Lavra is the Third Lot of the Mother of God, one of the holiest places on earth. The Venerable Fathers of the Caves rest here, their bodies remaining incorrupt for many centuries. The very idea of burying alongside them individuals guilty of mass killings is sacrilege. And the fact that they killed in the name of an independent Ukraine changes nothing from the perspective of Christ's teaching.

It is also worth mentioning that the majority of the heroes already planned to be buried in this shrine of Orthodoxy are Uniates.

So how did the "OCU Lavra Vicar" Avraamiy Lotysh respond to Zelensky's idea? Did he use his newfound influence to dissuade the president from such a step? No – he fully supported it.

Lotysh called the decision a momentous event that would allow the entire world to learn about the people who secured the country's independence and sovereignty. "Our national heroes will be buried here – heroes whom the whole world must know, for it is thanks to them that we have our country, our sovereignty, our independence," declared the OCU representative.

He expressed particular gratitude to Zelensky, emphasizing that it was precisely thanks to the president's political will that the Pantheon project and the installation of a bust of Hetman Mazepa in the monastery had acquired their current scale and "solemnity."

For several years now, Ukrainians have been told: the OCU is the true church of the Ukrainian people, and it is there that one should seek to quench one's spiritual thirst. But

the story of the Pantheon at the Lavra is a litmus test, once again demonstrating that the salvation of Ukrainians is not among the OCU's objectives. Its "hierarchs" have a different goal – partnership with the authorities at any cost.

And this applies not only to the Pantheon. One might recall, for instance, the recent statement by Yelensky that the OCU and the UGCC are prepared to make compromises on the recognition of LGBT issues for the sake of Ukraine's accession to the EU. In other words, even those questions on which Christian confessions traditionally hold firm prove to be subject to bargaining when state approval and a "European perspective" are at stake. As for the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations' "advocacy" visits to the West with overtly false narratives about "freedom of faith," there is little need to even mention them.

It is known that Avraamiy Lotysh and the "OCU brotherhood" are listed as employees of the nature reserve and receive salaries there. This detail is symbolic: the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, like certain other religious structures, is effectively integrated into the state system. Not all of them, like Lotysh, are on the state payroll – but they are ready to support any initiative of the authorities, even one that directly contradicts Christianity.

"Put not your trust in princes, in the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation," the psalmist David exhorts us. The logic of Ukraine's contemporary confessions is different: they heard David – and did the opposite. Yet the psalm does not end on that verse. What follows concerns what happens sooner or later to any "prince": "his spirit departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish."

Stalins, Khrushchevs, Zelenskys pass away, their decrees are annulled, political conjunctures crumble – and everything built upon a prince's favor is laid in the same earth. Yet the psalm continues: blessed is he "whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God."

A Church built upon the rock outlives empires. Structures that serve princes disappear along with them.

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