MOSCOW, March 30. /TASS/. A group of parishioners, fearing a potential seizure of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra monastery in the Ukrainian capital, are spending the night at the monastery, the Strana news outlet reported.

According to the media outlet, the believers settled down for the night at the church of Saint Agapetus of Pechersk.

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.