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Policemen armed with assault rifles enter Kiev-Pechersk Lavra monastery

It was reported earlier that several police patrol squads were stationed near the Lavra’s main entrance doing vehicle searches of cars that were entering and leaving the premises

MOSCOW, March 30. /TASS/. Ukrainian policemen with assault rifles entered the premises of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra monastery on Thursday after the commission taking property inventory before transferring it to the state left, the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) said.

"The holy abode now. Parishioners are praying, reporters are filming, the police are at the entrance and on the premises armed with assault rifles," a statement on the UOC Telegram channel said.

The statement is accompanied by photographs, including one which shows three men entering the Lavra gates, one of them wearing a jacket marked "Police."

On Thursday, Ukraine’s Strana news outlet reported that several police patrol squads were stationed near the Lavra’s main entrance doing vehicle searches of cars that were entering and leaving the premises.

The commission taking property inventory before transferring the facilities of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra monastery leased by the UOC to the state could not begin working on Thursday morning because parishioners blocked it from entering, so they left the monastery, Strana reported.

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