MOSCOW, March 29. /TASS/. The Ukrainian authorities will not forcibly remove Ukrainian Orthodox clergymen from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Secretary Alexey Danilov said.

"No one will drag people out or use violence. Everything will be worked out according to the current legislation," Danilov told the Novoye Vremya news outlet, commenting on the situation around the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.

"We do not interfere in anything that has to do with church matters," he stressed. "However, I want to point out that the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra is a state-owned museum. And everything that has to do with this museum will be decided by the state," he added.

Services to take place, question is which ones

Danilov reported that the Ukrainian authorities would allow services to be held in the churches of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. However, he did not say which church would conduct these services: the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which currently occupied the territory of the Lavra, or the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which laid claim to it.

"Would the churches work? Yes, they would. Would there be services? Yes, there would be, but in full compliance with the laws of our country," Danilov stressed.

On March 10, the directorate of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra Reserve announced the termination of the open-ended lease agreement with the UOC’s Holy Dormition Kiev-Pechersk Lavra and instructed the monks to vacate the premises by March 29. Metropolitan Pavel branded these actions as illegal and said that the monks refused to leave the monastery. On Wednesday morning, Deputy Director General for Research of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra Reserve Konstantin Kraynik said that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s clergymen have to leave the Lavra by 11:59 p.m. (same time as Moscow’s). Kliment, the chairman of the synodic information department at the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, promised to make sure the Lavra clergymen would leave it neither in the coming days, nor at any other time due to the absence of legal grounds for such a decision. According to him, the forceful expulsion of the clergymen would testify to Ukraine’s non-compliance with religious rights.