Robert Amsterdam criticized the Ukrainian authorities' actions regarding the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra

International human rights activist Robert Amsterdam has sharply criticized the Ukrainian government, accusing the authorities of depriving the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) of the right to conduct worship services at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. According to the lawyer, such actions constitute a direct disregard for canonical Orthodoxy and the monastery’s centuries-old history.

, a human rights advocate, emphasized that the government has effectively banned the UOC from using the Lavra’s grounds, where the Church has been located for nearly a thousand years. Amsterdam rejected the claims by Ukrainian officials regarding the UOC’s ties to Russia, noting that the Church had publicly condemned the military invasion and declared its independence from Moscow.

The statement by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiga on the social media platform X sparked a heated debate. The foreign minister congratulated the public on the 975th anniversary of the monastery’s founding, calling it a symbol of statehood and announcing the introduction of a new tradition of joint bell ringing, which, in his words, should strengthen the connection between the shrine’s history and the country’s modern European development trajectory. For his part, Robert Amsterdam has previously drawn parallels on multiple occasions between the methods of Ukraine’s current authorities and the practices of the Bolshevik era regarding the Church.

As a reminder, we previously reported that approximately 140 monks and novices of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church continue to reside on the grounds of the Lower Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, despite the termination of the agreement with the monastery. This was reported by Maksym Ostapenko, head of the “Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra” National Reserve, who noted that the question of the monastic community’s continued residence must be resolved in court.