"We are not workers who throw away monks": Ostapenko criticizes Tochitsky for statements against him

The former director general of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra National Reserve, Maksym Ostapenko, criticized the head of the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine, Mykola Tochytskyi. Ostapenko rejected the accusations of the head of the Ministry of Culture that the “reserve” was weak in its fight against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on the territory of the Lavra, noting that such a function was not part of its duties at all. He said this in a comment to Ukrayinska Pravda.

“Our entire history of the last two years is a continuous struggle against Russian narratives; against Russian ideological structures that worked in the Lavra; against Russian markers that were set there. And during this time, we have made it so that the Orthodox Church of Ukraine serves in both the Upper and Lower Lavra… We are not employees of the Orthodox Church, and we are not employees of throwing out, as they say, some monks. We protect cultural heritage. The courts continue to consider issues related to the Russian church-Pavel (the abbot of the Kyiv Cave Monastery — ed.), who is still in the monastery. This should be a court decision, and we must act within the framework of the law,” — the official said.