Ukraine raids 1,000 year old Russia-backed Kyiv monastery

SBU intelligence service says the raid was to analyze suspicions of Russia utilizing the complicated for sabotage and to retailer weapons.

A group of Ukrainian law enforcement officers standing at entrance to the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery compound. There is snow on the ground.
Ukrainian legislation enforcement officers raided the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery compound on Tuesday [Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters]

Ukraine’s safety service and police have raided a 1,000-year-old Orthodox Christian monastery in Kyiv to counter suspected “subversive actions by Russian particular companies”.

The sprawling Kyiv Pechersk Lavra complicated – or Kyiv Monastery of the Caves – is a Ukrainian cultural treasure and its cathedral, church buildings and different buildings are a UNESCO-listed World Heritage website.

Overlooking the suitable financial institution of the Dnieper River, it's also the headquarters of the Russian-backed wing of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and falls underneath the Moscow Patriarchate.

The Ukrainian counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism service stated the search was a part of its “systematic work to counter the subversive actions of the Russian particular companies in Ukraine”.

The assertion from the intelligence service, often called the SBU for its initials in Ukrainian, stated the operation was geared toward stopping using the monastery as “the centre of the Russian world” and carried out to look into suspicions “about using the premises … for sheltering sabotage and reconnaissance teams, overseas residents, [and] weapons storage”. It stated one other website was additionally being searched within the Rivne area, 240 kilometres (150 miles) west of the capital.

a grouo of Orthodox Christian priests in black robes and with long grey beards stand outside the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery. Ukrainian intelligence service agents and police are also in the pictue, One wearing fatigues is standing with back to the camera in the foreground
Orthodox clergymen are proven talking to Ukrainian legislation enforcement officers. The raid adopted experiences of a sermon at a current service the place the priest spoke favourably of Russia [Press Service of the State Security Service of Ukraine via Reuters]

The “Russian world” idea is on the centre of President Vladimir Putin’s new overseas coverage doctrine, which goals to guard Russia’s language, tradition and faith. It has been utilized by conservative ideologues to justify intervention overseas.

The SBU didn't elaborate on the result of the operation.

Battle deepens break up

In Russia, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Ukrainian authorities of “waging a warfare on the Russian Orthodox Church”.

He described the search “as one other hyperlink within the chain of those aggressive actions towards Russian Orthodoxy”.

Moscow-based church authorities have repeatedly voiced help for the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, who heads the Russian Orthodox Church, has described the warfare as a “metaphysical wrestle” between Moscow and the West. He condemned Tuesday’s search as “an act of intimidation”.

The raid will additional pressure already tense relations between Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox Christians.

“Like many different instances of persecution of believers in Ukraine since 2014, this act of intimidation of believers is nearly sure to go unnoticed by those that name themselves the worldwide human rights neighborhood,” stated Vladimir Legoyda, a spokesperson for the Russian Orthodox Church.

The SBU operation follows a November 12 service on the Pechersk Lavra complicated the place a Ukrainian Orthodox priest was filmed speaking concerning the “awakening” of Russia.

The SBU stated it was “trying into the small print of the incident that occurred in one of many temples of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra – the place songs praising the ‘Russian world’ have been sung”.

An aerial view of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra with its golden domes poking through mist
The thousand-year-old Kyiv Pechersk Lavra is a World Heritage website and some of the well-known websites within the Ukrainian capital [File: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo]

Final Friday, the SBU stated it had charged a senior clergyman from the western Vinnytsia area with making an attempt to distribute leaflets justifying Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine.

In Might, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate ended its ties with the Russian Church over the latter’s help for what Moscow calls a “particular army operation”.

Ukraine says the full-scale invasion was an unprovoked warfare of aggression.

A 2020 survey by the Kyiv-based Razumkov Centre discovered that 34 % of Ukrainians recognized as members of the principle Orthodox Church of Ukraine, whereas 14 % have been members of Ukraine’s Moscow Patriarchate Church.

In 2019, Ukraine was given permission by the religious chief of Orthodox Christians worldwide to type a church unbiased of Moscow, largely ending centuries of non secular ties between the 2 international locations.

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