MOSCOW, April 10. /TASS/. The priests of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) will not leave their churches in the Rovno Region despite the local authorities’ ban on its activities in the region, Archbishop Pimen, of Rovno and Ostrog, said on Monday.

"We, the priests, will remain with our flock to the end. We will never leave our monasteries and our churches, because we built them and rebuilt them from the ruins," a Ukrainian media resource quotes Archbishop Pimen as saying.

He stressed that there were no plans to unite with the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine (PCU). The decision of the regional authorities will be scrutinized by UOC lawyers.

On Monday, the members of the Rovno Regional Council prohibited the activities of the UOC in the region. Moreover, the Rovno City Council passed a resolution to terminate the lease agreements with the UOC regarding the plots of land on which the churches are located. Similar decisions had been taken earlier by the authorities of other Ukrainian regions, including the Lvov and Khmelnitsky regions.

The Ukrainian authorities support the policy of ousting the UOC. On instructions from Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, the government has drafted and submitted to parliament a bill that would outlaw the UOC in the country, if the Ukrainian authorities ruled it was connected with Russia. Over the past year, many UOC priests have been accused of treason. Sanctions have been imposed on some of them. Schismatics have been seizing church buildings. In March, the lease agreement with the canonical church on the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra was severed and the monks told to leave the monastery.