The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate called the statements of the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Oleh Nikolenko about the UN report "patterns in the style of Russian propaganda."
This is reported by the Information and Educational Department of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, in its report on the situation with respect for human rights, called the searches in the temples of the Moscow Patriarchate "discriminatory". And Nikolenko emphasized that freedom is not the same as the right to engage in activities that undermine national security.
"The representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine [...] showed an open slanderous and discriminatory attitude of the state towards millions of its citizens who do not want to renounce the Ukrainian Orthodox Church due to their religious beliefs," they said.
Meanwhile, priests of the UOC MP begin to collect things in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. As of March 29, the reserve is terminating the lease agreement with the Moscow Patriarchate. Radio Svoboda reports that the monks are taking the icons with them. Some of them say that they plan to remove everything from the territory except the relics because they consider all the property to be their property.
- Since November 2022, the Security Service of Ukraine has conducted a series of searches in churches and other institutions of the Moscow Patriarchate. During the searches, they seized pro-Russian literature, "Novorossiya" flags, millions of cash, literature denying the existence of the Ukrainian people, their language, as well as Ukraineʼs right to statehood, and, on the contrary, claiming that the state was created artificially.