It is worth noting that on May 27, 2025, the head of the OCU, Epiphany Dumenko, met with Svitlana Kotlyarevska, acting head of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra National Reserve. The parties discussed further cooperation and the liberation of the Lavra “from the influence of the structures of the Moscow Patriarchate.”
“According to the law, we couldn't evict them”: Ostapenko on the monks of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra
Maksym Ostapenko, former director general of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra National Reserve, explained why he was unable to evict the monks of the Kyiv-Pechersk Monastery of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The official noted that such actions are not provided for by law, which he repeatedly pointed out to the Ministry of Culture, but his explanations were ignored. He spoke about this in an interview with Babel.
«According to the law, we cannot remove them. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church provided a list of 147 people. These are their novices, monks, and staff. We removed everyone else—the refectory, souvenir shops, printing house, seminary, and metropolis. There were more than 20 legal entities that made up the business empire of the Moscow Patriarchate,» — said the former official.
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