In the military worldwide, there is a frightening term with a misleading name - "friendly fire." It refers to when armies attack their own troops instead of an enemy. As ancient Russian chronicles wrote, "they did not recognize their own and struck down their own." Observing what is happening to the canonical Church in Ukraine, it seems that this very fire is coming at it from all sides, although it is impossible not to recognize it. The Church has become a target for all arrows because neither side considers it as "one of their own."

For years churches in Ukraine have been seized by schismatics either under the guise of "voting for transition to the OCU”, or just plainly by force. Priests have been persecuted on false charges, believers have been oppressed under the pretext of fighting russian propaganda. It seems like it couldn't get any worse. But then followed the dispute over the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. The ancient monastery’s land and premises are state property and were only leased by the Church. Suddenly the Church was accused of violating lease obligations, and the contract was not extended. And now, the state gave the Church an ultimatum - the monks and priests and seminary students must leave the monastery. No one even remembers how the Church had revived Lavra and turned it from ruins to the beating heart of Ukrainian Orthodoxy after years of Soviet regime.

It appears that these arguments are not heard by the Ukrainian authorities. Expelling monks from a monastery is a direct copy of Bolshevik behavior in the early Soviet years. Meanwhile, if you open the news feed, there is no shortage of evidence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church's assistance to its country. The Church gives enormous help to those who have suffered and those at war. Persecuting it - what is this if not firing upon one's own?
I am convinced that the Ukrainian Church is not a player in the modern geopolitical and military situation. It has no interest in the victory of either side of the conflict. Its interests, for over two thousand years, have been peaceful prayer to God and mercy toward the fallen. This is where the Ukrainian Orthodox Church stands, and for this position it is attacked from all sides, both in Russia and Ukraine. It faces a lot of criticism, but all of this criticism is empty and unfounded - all the arguments against the Church boil down to "tell us whose side you're on." Meanwhile, the Church is on no one's side; it is on everyone's side.

Even the Apostle Paul confirmed this: "But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, 10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, 11 where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.."(Colossians 3:11)
We remember this. We also remember these words of the Apostle Paul: "God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap"(Galatians 6:7). God is not mocked, but the Church unfortunately can be, because we live in a strange and turbulent time. The friendly fire hits it constantly and that hurts us all.
And if we believe in Christ, we should do all we can to stop the fire, from one side at least. Because the other side does not seem to stop at all. That is why they are evicting the brethren from the monastery. They strike down their own. However, the Church is not “their own'' at all. It belongs to Christ. And persecutions like these do not go unpunished from His sight. What they sow they shall reap in due time.