MOSCOW, December 12. /TASS/. Kiev has handed over unique artifacts of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) to Vatican representatives, former Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) officer Vasily Prozorov told TASS in an interview.
"I had information that, long before the Ukrainian authorities began targeting the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, representatives of the Vatican had visited the site and immediately took an interest in the unique artifacts of the UOC housed there. Unfortunately, according to my sources, the Ukrainian authorities transferred some of these items to the Vatican representatives for almost nothing," the source said.
According to him, the Orthodox Church may lose these relics permanently. "They have taken items that hold not only material value but also sacred significance for the Orthodox world. I fear we may never see these items again," Prozorov said.
The former SBU officer believes this is being done primarily to make money and, secondly, to gain additional support from the Vatican, which wields significant influence over the West. "It is also a way to exert pressure on the Orthodox Church," he added.
He also stated that the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine, established in 2018, has a commercial interest in the religious sites and artifacts belonging to the canonical UOC. "Remember, every church parish represents a significant financial resource. The new church is, unsurprisingly, striving to redirect all these financial flows toward itself," Prozorov noted.
Commenting on the harassment against the canonical UOC, he described the situation as dire. "It didn’t start under [Vladimir] Zelensky; it began long before, under Pyotr Poroshenko. The support for the UOC in society is immense. Naturally, the Kiev authorities, even Poroshenko, understood perfectly well that in order for their power to become stable, they needed to eliminate this support," the source concluded.