The Ukrainian security services (SBU) carried out a search on Tuesday morning, November 22, in the main monastery of the capital kyiv, place of residence of the primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and suspected of links with Russia, they announced in a communicated.
The SBU”conducts counterintelligence measures» on the site of the Lavra of the Caves of kyiv «to counter the subversive activities of Russian special services in Ukraine“, he indicated on Telegram, specifying that this search was carried out “jointly with the national police and the national guard“.
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Unesco World Heritage
Located south of the city center of the Ukrainian capital, the Kyiv Caves Lavra, built in the middle of the 11th century, is the oldest monastery in Ukraine. It has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1990. According to an AFP journalist present on the spot, SBU agents were entering and leaving the monastery, a layer of snow covering the ground and the splendid golden bell towers of the monastery.
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A police car was parked at the entrance to the site, this AFP journalist also saw. Pilgrims continued to go to pray, after having declined their identity and showing the contents of their bag to agents dressed in khaki uniforms. Ukraine is central to the Russian Orthodox Church with some of the most important monasteries in this country.
Diplomatic tensions
At the end of May, however, the Moscow branch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church announced that it was severing its ties with Russia due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In May 2019, already against a backdrop of diplomatic tensions, part of the Ukrainian Church represented by the Patriarchate of kyiv broke with Moscow and pledged allegiance to Patriarch Bartolomé, based in Istanbul.
On Tuesday, the Ukrainian security services explained “carry out checks on persons (…) regarding their involvement in illegal activities detrimental to the sovereignty of the Ukrainian state“. “These measures are carried out to prevent the use (of the monastery) as a center of the “russian world“,” they added without giving further details. The SBU said separately, on Facebook, to have carried out a similar raid in two monasteries and the local diocese in the region of Rivné (North-West).
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The press service of the Patriarchate of Moscow quickly denounced a “act of intimidationtowards Ukrainian believers. “We pray for our fellow believers (…), who are becoming victims of lawlessness, and we call on all kind-hearted people to do all they can to stop this persecution.“, he wrote in a press release.
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