"The war broke out. The consequences will be tragic"
Zakharova, commenting on Kyiv's plans to expel the clergy from the Pochayev Lavra, called it "a new stage in the religious war".
"The new phase of the religious war in Ukraine initiated by the Kyiv regime will, of course, not lead to anything good. The consequences will be tragic," she said at a briefing on Thursday.
Earlier, Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, advisor to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill, expressed the opinion that the Ukrainian authorities will try to take Pochayevsk from the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UPC). At the same time, the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine (PCU) competes for the right to it with the Greek Catholics.
Pochaiv Lavra
The monks of the Kiev Pochaiv Lavra will not all leave the monastery
Some monks will leave the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, but some of them will stay there until the end, a source close to the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra told Sputnik.
"Some will go to their places of birth and to other regions of Ukraine. Those who have apartments in Kyiv will disperse among their apartments, like in the 20s and 30s of the 20th century. They will be in their houses, they will pray and wait. Probably a small part of the nationalists, who find it irrelevant what the church is like, will stay in the Lavra and go to schismatics. Part of the monks who are faithful to the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church will stay in the Lavra until the end," the source said.
A source close to the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra previously stated that some of the monks left the monastery on March 20, and that books from the library were distributed to the religious believers. According to him, lectures are still in progress at the Kyiv Spiritual Academy, but the students are already packing.
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