Kotliarevska announced her intention to paint over the murals depicting the hierarchs of the UOC in the Assumption Cathedral of the Lavra

Acting director of the Kyiv-Pechersk Reserve Svitlana Kotliarevska reported about the initiative of painting over part of the murals in the Assumption Cathedral of the monastery. She stated that she does not like the presence on the frescoes of the hierarchs of the UOC who took direct part in the restoration of the shrine after the Soviet period. In particular, it concerns His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy and the late Metropolitan Volodymyr, who are the holy archimandrites of the monastery, as well as the abbot of the Lavra Metropolitan Pavlo. According to her, the “reconstruction and decoration” of the Lavra “took place during the times of great influence of the Moskovites.” The official told about this in an interview with the resource “Ukrinform.”

“Partly this can also be seen on the first floor of the cathedral. If we change the respective murals and leave on them only those who really should be there, this can become a wonderful example of a visual derussification of the Assumption Cathedral,” Kotliarevska stated.

Let us also recall that Svitlana Kotliarevska announced her intention to submit to UNESCO the “fact of veneration of the relics of the venerable in the caves” as a unique component of the intangible cultural heritage. Commenting on the “services” of the OCU in the Far Caves of the Lavra, Kotliarevska called them “a historic event,” boasting that the service takes place in the Ukrainian language and in the Ukrainian caves of the Lavra.