Petro Lebid, the abbot of the 980-year-old Kyiv Pechersk Lavra also known as the Kyiv Monastery of the Caves was sentenced to 60 days of house arrest amid a crack down on the Ukrainian Orthodox church over accusations that it has been collaborating with Moscow.
A standoff at a nearly 1,000-year-old Orthodox monastery renowned for its labyrinthine subterranean caves and chapels is coming to a head as monks from a denomination that was long loyal to the Russian Orthodox Church defy Ukrainian orders to leave. Here’s what you need to know.
Metropolitan Bishop Pavel, vicegerent of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra in the Ukrainian capital, said on Friday he feared that an attack on the Eastern Orthodox cave monastery could take place as early as Friday evening.
The United States should pay attention to the situation in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra (Kiev Monastery of the Caves), and not engage in moralizing about democracy, Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov said.