Monks with prayers drove away militants from the Kiev Pechersk Lavra
Kyiv, February 23 (Navigator, Mikhail Ryabov) - Details of the night confrontation at the gates of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra have become known, where around midnight a group of people in camouflage appeared, introducing themselves as “Maidan self-defense”.
Subscribe to Navigator Kyiv news >>>
“About 23:30 Petro Poroshenko arrived and was met by Metropolitan Anthony, manager of the affairs of the UOC. Poroshenko assured the holy fathers: “don’t worry, no one will seize” - allegedly, people simply appeared for protection. Self-defense activists then began to patrol the Lavra. To the question: “By whose order?”, they answered: “That’s what the community decided.” But this public was not aggressive,” Igor Stokalich, an employee of the press service of the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate, told Navigator.
“However, at approximately midnight, already in front of the barrier, an aggressive paramilitary public in masks appeared, which replaced the first hundred “self-defense.” Some had small arms. Those who arrived called themselves “UPA”. Unlike the first patrol, they were very aggressive. They shouted at the monks “you cursed us!”, “you supported Yanukovych, you are the Moscow Patriarchate, the fifth column!” etc.,” the agency’s interlocutor continued.
“The fathers quickly closed the gate. The bells rang at the nearby stoves. In a minute, the entire Lavra and theological schools were under the entrance gates. For a whole hour they stood here with prayer chants, which were able to drown out the chanting of “UPA” slogans. An hour passed, and the aggressive hundred disappeared,” says Stokalich.
“The morning has come, and here, as in Viya, there is silence, people go to worship, everything is calm. There are about a dozen “self-defense members” standing near the Lavra, but they are no longer aggressive,” he clarified.
According to Stokalich, the Lavra consciously refused to mobilize Cossacks to guard the monastery during the days of the revolution.
“Do you want it to be announced that this is a hotbed of counter-revolution, so that the whole Maidan will come here? We have nothing to fear. All of Orthodoxy stands behind us. We are not Berkut, we are not the Verkhovna Rada,” the agency’s interlocutor said.
When asked by a journalist whether any of the politicians who previously supported the UOC-MP arrived when it became known about the threat of storming the Lavra, Stokalich replied: “When there was a mess, the monks were alone with the thugs.”
English version :: Read in English: Monks with prayers drove militants away from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra