Moscow church seeks the Ukrainian president’s intercession

Metropolitan bishop Pavlo of the so-called Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate – the head of the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra – called on the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky to protect the UOC MP and not to take away the churches which are leasing space on the Lavra territory, LB.ua reports.

The matter concerns the two main shrines of the Lavra complex – the Dormition Cathedral and the Tabernacle Church. Their lease ends on December 31; the UOC MP will not be allowed to enter onto that territory from January 1, 2023.

Lavra’s deputy, who was nicknamed “Pasha-Mercedes” for his love of expensive cars, became infamous for attacking journalists, called for unity with Russia, declared that Crimea “was never Ukrainian,” and called Ukraine “the aggressor in the war in Donbas,” now asks the Ukrainian president to urge the Ukrainian government and Ukrainian MPs not to decide the end of the lease of the Lavra churches.

At the same time, in order not to get up twice, so to speak, Pasha-Mercedes asked that “people who are not related to the church should not tell us when to celebrate Christmas and which church to go to.”

In other words, the church – which for centuries was an instrument of Moscow’s colonial policy in Ukraine, and even during the current full-scale aggression hid Russian saboteurs and Kremlin propaganda literature, per recent searches – is asking Ukraine to allow it to continue to do so, and to continue in comfort for good measure.