MOSCOW, March 30. /TASS/. The canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church has banned from serving Archimandrite Avraamiy (Lotysh), appointed as the vicar of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra monastery by the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine, according to a statement.

"Former priest of the Holy Dormition Kiev-Pechersk Lavra Archimandrite Avraamiy (Lotysh) is hereby banned from serving for going into schism and blatantly violating his oath," Ukrainian Orthodox Church said.

On March 10, the directorate of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra reserve terminated the open-ended lease with the Holy Dormition Kiev-Pechersk Lavra of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and ordered its monks to leave the monastery by March 29. The Lavra’s abbot, Metropolitan Pavel, slammed these actions as illegal and declared the monks’ refusal to leave. On Wednesday, the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine appointed its own "vicar" (assistant rector) of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.

The so-called Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) was created in 2018 from two schismatic organizations, which later obtained autocephaly from Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. Neither the Russian Orthodox Church nor the Ukrainian Orthodox Church recognize the canonical status of this religious organization. After the creation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, its supporters began to seize the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s church buildings by force.