Lukashenko offers shelter to monks from Kiev-Pechersk Lavra
17:37, 6 July
Photo: BelTA
Belarus will take care of all monks from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said at a meeting with foreign and Belarusian journalists in Minsk on 6 July, BelTA has learned.
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“If the Belarusian Orthodox Church has said this, then Belarus will take care of all the monks. These people have not done anything bad. Why would someone mistreat them? Thus, God willing, we will do everything to give a shelter to the monks from this monastery in Belarus, if these people want it,” Aleksandr Lukashenko assured.
The president said that he did not understand why the Ukrainian authorities were oppressing these people. He sees this as a deliberate escalation of the situation. “They are playing with fire. And if it happened to Muslims? This could have triggered a bigger conflict than the special military operation. This suggests that they do not want any peace. They keep raising stakes all the time – be it small things, or big things, ideologically, financially, on the battlefield. And this is bad. This is a terrible misunderstanding, to put it mildly. I still can't comprehend why the Ukrainian authorities would need it. Why would they escalate the situation and create a confrontation on top of the problems they already have? We will not leave these poor fellows in trouble, that's for sure. We will find a place for them in Belarus,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
A reminder, the other day the Synod of the Belarusian Orthodox Church (BOC) offered to host the monks in the event of their forcible eviction from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. Ukraine's Ministry of Culture issued another executive order ruling that the monks of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra leave the premises of the monastery. The highly probable expulsion of the monks from the Lavra is a violation of the law, a demonstrative act of disregard for the universal values and the rights of believers, the BOC believes.
The Belarusian Orthodox Church also calls on the Ukrainian authorities to prevent the removal of church relics and shrines that have been kept within the walls of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra for centuries and are a spiritual support for all Slavic peoples. There is a great danger that the shrines may be damaged or completely lost as a result of transportation. The BOC fears that the icons and relics of the holy ascetics may end up in museum collections or even in private collections of people who are often far from faith and piety, thereby repeating the tragic fate of the Belarusian shrine - the Cross of St. Euphrosyne of Polotsk.
