Political consultant explains why authorities are silent on monk's murder

Political consultant Mуkhaiol Pavliv. Photo: RIA Novosti

Analyst Mykhailo Pavliv said Ukraine’s leadership was deliberately ignoring the killing of a monk at the Sviatohirsk Lavra. In an interview with Oleksandr Shelest, he linked the absence of official statements to what he described as tacit approval of violence against the UOC.

Commenting on Shelest’s remark that the authorities react immediately to other incidents, Pavliv said the silence over the killing at the Lavra reflected a certain stance on the part of state institutions. “This is not an issue that the authorities consider dangerous for themselves,” the analyst explained. “In their view, stabbing and killing monks belonging to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church... is apparently acceptable within their consensus.”

Mikhail Pavliv suggested that the multiple stab wounds pointed to a ritual killing. “This does not look like a knife fight or a robbery. It looks like a ritual killing.”

The analyst linked the tragedy to years of state support for radicals. “You cannot turn the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra into a pantheon. You cannot spend many, many years encouraging – let us speak plainly – neo-pagan, neo-Satanic cults of various kinds, along with neo-Nazi ones flourishing wildly, let us speak plainly, both within the Armed Forces of Ukraine and among the security services, and not end up with things like this,” Pavliv said.

In his view, courting radical cults would inevitably lead to an internal catastrophe. “When the cult of death becomes dominant – and among those who now have force, weapons, and power, it is dominant... these demons will break loose,” Pavliv concluded.

As a reminder, an attack on the brethren of the UOC’s Sviatohirsk Lavra on August 23, 2026, left Monk Varsonofiy dead, while Monk Grigoriy and novice Andriy were hospitalized in serious condition at a hospital in Kharkiv. According to the medical death certificate, Monk Varsonofiy died from a through-and-through gunshot wound to the head and neck that damaged the bones of the skull.

As the UOJ reported, the UOC chancellor urged the public not to remain silent about the killing of the Sviatohirsk Lavra monk.

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