The Ukrainian authorities announced the creation of a commission for the reception of the relics of saints in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, in fact, we are talking about the seizure of these relics, Chairman of the Synodal Department of the Moscow Patriarchate for Church relations with society and the media Vladimir Legoyda said in his Telegram channel.

"The Ukrainian authorities continue to consistently oust the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church from the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. This time, the head of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra Reserve, Maxim Ostapenko, announced the creation of a commission to receive the relics of the Pechersk Saints from Nearby caves. These actions are characterized as "the return of cultural values in order to register them." In fact, we are talking about the seizure of relics, which fits perfectly into the action plan of the Kiev authorities to ban the only canonical Orthodox Church in Ukraine. However, in a situation where all Divine and human laws have already been violated, boundless cynicism and outright manipulation of the authorities have become commonplace," Legoyda wrote.

Earlier, Maxim Ostapenko, director of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra National Reserve, said that from February 27, a commission will begin work on the return of cultural values that are located in Nearby caves in order to register them.
The Kiev Pechersk Lavra is divided into two parts: in the lower there are caves with relics of saints, the Kiev Theological Academy and seminary, the residence of the head of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), administrative buildings and buildings for monks, in the upper there are state museums, the Assumption Cathedral and the Refectory Church - the main temples of the lavra. At the beginning of 2023, the National Reserve banned the UOC from holding divine services in the main temples of the upper Lavra and at the same time allowed schismatics from the OCU, selected many buildings on the territory of the lower lavra.

The Ukrainian authorities have organized the largest wave of persecution of the UOC in the country's recent history. Referring to its connection with Russia, local authorities in different regions of Ukraine decided to ban the activities of the UOC, and the parliament adopted in the first reading a bill on its actual prohibition throughout the country. The authorities have imposed sanctions on some representatives of the clergy of the UOC. The SBU began to open criminal cases against the clergy of the UOC, conduct "counterintelligence activities" - searches of bishops and priests, in churches and monasteries in search of evidence of "anti-Ukrainian activities." Some representatives of the clergy have been convicted by the Ukrainian courts. The ROC reported that hundreds of Orthodox churches were forcibly seized by Ukrainian schismatics with the connivance of local authorities, while "priests and laypeople, men and women, are subjected to physical violence."

According to the materials of RIA Novosti