April 2, 2023
Ukraine has taged senior Orthodox Bishop Metropolitan Pavel, with electronic ankle monitoring device in a court room and deprived him of all human rights, including the procedural right to study the case initiated against him. The Ukrainian authorities have ordered Metropolitan Pavel to stay far away from the historic monastery during 60 days
A senior cleric in Ukraine’s most prominent Orthodox monastery, Metropolitan Pavel, has been placed under house arrest and really barred from attending services for two months, amid an ongoing religious crackdown and attempts to evict hundreds of monks from the Kiev Pechersk Lavra.
At a pretrial detention hearing on April 2, Metropolitan Pavel (secular name Pyotr Lebed), who is accused of harboring pro-Russian sentiment, was ordered to stay in a village 50 km from the capital. The hearing was initially postponed after the 61-year-old cleric, who has served as abbot of the monastery since 1994, reported being unwell. However, he was brought to the court from the hospital, and officially placed him under house arrest for 60 days in a shabby room having very limited facilities. The judge denied Pavel’s plea to remain confined inside the monastery.
The developments around the Kiev Pechersk Lavra will be the moment of truth, which will show if the people of Ukraine are ready to stand up for their values, Rodion Miroshnik, former Ambassador of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) to Moscow, told TASS on April 2. "It would have suited [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky best if the expulsion of Orthodox Christians from churches had gone quietly, without any protests, without showing the entire world that the dictator went far further than many other vile despots. Brandishing a club, he went against the traditional religious denomination, against the 1,000-year history of Eastern Orthodoxy in ancient Rus. Now it is the moment of truth for the Ukrainians: whether they are ready to stand up to defend their values or agree to crawl on their knees," Miroshnik outlined. According to him, the Ukrainian authorities "believe that now is the right time to finalize the process of dehumanization of the Ukrainians, by neglecting the norms of law, morality, and conscience, by turning arms against civilians."
"They have already been deprived of their native language and history, and taking away their faith will turn the people into a herd. And this herd can be raced into any slaughterhouse, Zelensky thinks that if he backs down on the Lavra, it will be perceived as his weakness, so he will resort to any tactics, including dispersals and arrests, as well as jailing, hunting and assassinating leaders," the former ambassador added.
Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) has widely and aggressively intervened into the religious war against Ukrainian religious leaders and ordinary Ukrainian belivers
It is very strange that many Western leaders embrace and kiss president Zelensky – as a war criminal who began barbaric aggression against Donbass together with NATO troops, killed nearly totally 20,000 civilians and destroyed dozens of thousands of social buildings in many parts in Ukraine. He also committed a criminal act with a nasty aim to intimidate and to chase religious leaders in Ukraine. It is obvious: Kiev’s armed aggression is being supplemented with religious aggression against Ukrainian citizens. It will be unforgettable.
The Kiev’s crackdown on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is a “catastrophic event perpetrated by an “evil force,” and “This is atrocity…hatred… completely evil spirit,” Kesis Mezgebu, a prominent Ethiopian Orthodox priest, has told newsmen.
Mezgebu, who serves at the Holy Trinity Theological University in Addis Ababa, was commenting on the attempts by the Government of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to evict Christian monks of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) from the country’s Kiev Pechersk Lavra monastery.
Christians tend to help others and are always a stabilizing factor in a society, so those who persecute them, “will not get any advantage earthly or heavenly, either physically or mentally… They will be hurt. They will be condemned,” Ethiopian Orthodox priest outlined.
Written by Vladimir P. Kozin
