Lavrov Urges Guterres and Osmani to Block Expulsion of Monks from Pechersk Lavra

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov sent two letters to the UN Secretary General and the Chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, in which he mentioned violations of the rights of the Orthodox in Ukraine.

And the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Lavrov sent two letters today, Tuesday, March 14, to UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Foreign Minister of North Macedonia Boyar Osmani, current chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

“The basis of these violations is the repressive policy of the Kyiv regime, which is aimed at destroying the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” the statement said.

The two letters contain many facts related to the persecution of the Orthodox Church, including campaigns to seize Ukrainian Orthodox churches and the forcible illegal liquidation of their local communities under the guise of allegedly voluntary transfer to the jurisdiction of another church, in addition to the so-called. – called restrictive measures against the hierarchs of the Orthodox Church and the deprivation of a number of its hierarchs of Ukrainian citizenship, as well as moral and physical pressure on priests and parishioners.

The Russian Foreign Ministry indicated that Lavrov called the actions of the Ukrainian authorities “a flagrant violation of the rights of Orthodox Christians in Ukraine, contrary to international law.”

She added: “Lavrov regarded the recent decision of the Kyiv authorities to expel monks from the monastery as an attempt, under a far-fetched pretext, to deprive the Orthodox Church of one of its main monasteries, which is the pinnacle of the persecution of Orthodoxy in Ukraine.”

A Russian presidential spokesman said earlier that Ukraine’s demands for monks to leave the monastery are worrying and unacceptable, and the international community must respond.

Source: Sputnik

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