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Ukrainian nationalists threaten Kiev Pechersk Lavra with new attacks

The statement came in the wake of their attempt to block the entrance to the monastery on Monday

KIEV, January 9. /TASS/. Extremists from the S14 nationalist organization disseminated threats to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church reporting to the Moscow Patriarchate through Ukrainian media on Tuesday. Additionally, they plan to toughen action against clergymen and parishioners of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, a major Orthodox Christian monastery. The statement came in the wake of their attempt to block the entrance to the monastery on Monday.

"Our next actions will be more large-scale and more prolonged, perhaps, in the form of the blockade or some other interesting ‘creative’ steps," the Obozrevatel online edition quotes S14 coordinator Markiyan Yatsinyak as saying. According to Yatsinyak, the blockade will be primarily directed against the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, as this is "a landmark, symbolic place," but there will be "other targets" as well. As far as the Lavra is concerned, extremists demand that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate be stripped of its exclusive right to conduct services in its churches.

On January 8, about 30 extremists from the S14 nationalist organization blocked the entrance to the Kiev Pechersk Lavra protesting against priests’ refusal to perform a funeral service for those participants in the military operation in the Donbass region who were not baptized in the churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church reporting to the Moscow Patriarchate.

The S14 Ukrainian nationalist organization was established in 2010. In the winter of 2014, its members were actively involved in the unrest in central Kiev, which led to a coup.

In November 2017, the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland (USA) added S14 to the global terrorism database.