MOSCOW, March 14. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has called on UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and 2023 OSCE Chairman-in-Office and Macedonian Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani to demand that Kiev cease its persecution of the canonical Orthodox Church and forestall the usurpation of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra monastery.
"The Russian foreign minister called on the international leaders to give a principled assessment of the illegitimate actions of the Ukrainian regime against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), to demand that Kiev cease its persecution and repression against the canonical Orthodox Church, strictly abide by Ukraine’s commitments under generally recognized international documents, and forestall the eviction of monks from and usurpation of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra monastery," the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.
According to the ministry, Lavrov sent letters to Guterres and Osmani to draw their attention to the violations of human and constitutional rights of Orthodox believers in Ukraine. "These violations stem from the Kiev regime’s policy of repression, which is geared toward exterminating the Ukrainian Orthodox Church," it noted.
Thus, the letters cite numerous examples of persecution against the canonical Orthodox Church, such as the seizure of UOC churches and illegal liquidation of their congregations under the pretext of their allegedly voluntary transfer to another jurisdiction, so-called restrictive measures against bishops of the canonical Orthodox Church, including stripping them of Ukrainian citizenship, and the moral and physical pressure that has been put on clergy and parishioners alike.
Lavrov slammed the actions of the Ukrainian authorities as "the most flagrant violation of rights and discrimination of Orthodox Christians in Ukraine, which runs counter to an entire range of international legal documents, such as the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief, among others," the ministry said.
"The minister described the recent decision by the Kiev authorities to expel monks from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra monastery as a step to use an invented pretext and repression to deprive the canonical Orthodox Church of one of its main holy sites. As a matter of fact, it represents the pinnacle of persecution against the canonical Orthodox Church in Ukraine," it stressed.