GENEVA, April 3. /TASS/. EU countries shamelessly turn a blind eye on the regular searches, arrests and interrogations of clergymen that have been commonplace in Ukraine since 2014, Russia’s delegation to the 52nd session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva said on Monday. Russia described the news blackout and indifference towards the violent seizure of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra by the Ukrainian regime as incitement to religious hatred.

The Russian delegation’s spokesman Ivan Tatarinov in his statement at the session recalled the draft resolution on the freedom of religion or belief being promoted by the EU countries in the HRC.

"The authors of the resolution shamelessly turn a blind eye on the fact that seizures of churches, regular searches, arrests and interrogations of clerics, confiscation of their property, termination of citizenship, psychological pressure and physical elimination have been commonplace in Ukraine since 2014," he noted. "While the delegations of the EU countries, Britain and the US in this room are covering up the crimes of the Ukrainian authorities at the microphone, in Kiev an undisguised violent seizure of the Orthodox shrine - Kiev-Pechersk Lavra - is in progress," Tatarinov said, stressing that "Europe and its overseas patrons stay shamefully silent."

"Such encouragement of religious hatred not only discredits them completely, but also deprives them of the moral right to speak about the freedom of religion or belief and in general to position themselves as samples of democracy," Tatarinov stated.

He drew attention to the fact that at the current HRC session "carbon copy statements by delegations of the EU countries, the US and some of their supporters" on the situation in Ukraine are brimming with "unscrupulousness, lies and double standards."

These delegations "continue to deliberately turn a blind eye on the crimes by the Kiev authorities," including the killings of Russian prisoners, beatings and torture, and sexual and other violence, documented in the report of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Tatarinov concluded.

Situation around Kiev-Pechersk Lavra

The tensions over the monastery escalated after the monks of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) refused to leave the monastery at the request of the directorate of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra reserve, which had earlier unilaterally terminated the monastery's open-ended lease. On March 30 a commission arrived at the monastery to conduct an inventory of the property but was not allowed into the monastery. The situation repeated itself the next day, with scuffles near the monastery.

During the weekend, both supporters and opponents of the UOC gathered near the monastery. On April 1, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) brought charges against Metropolitan Pavel, the Lavra’s vicar, for alleged incitement of religious hatred and pro-Russian actions. The court put him under round-the-clock house arrest for 60 days. Metropolitan Pavel must remain under arrest with an electronic bracelet on his ankle in the Kiev region far away from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. On April 3, a commission came to the monastery again to begin an inventory of the property.