Pro-Moscow Clergy Obstruct Journalists at the Lavra

On the morning of Thursday, after a religious service on the territory of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), including the Metropolitan Pavel, prevented media representatives from doing their work, as reported by its correspondents.

Surrounded by supporters, Pavel, the vicar of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and Metropolitan of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), threatened to attack "Telegraph" journalist Ian Dobronosov with a stick.

"I’m going to take this stick and smash all your cameras," the vicar of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra said.

A journalist asked Pavel to confess that Russia attacked Ukraine, but he remained silent. Supporters of the Metropolitan began telling the journalist not to provoke them, while one of the clergy pounced on the journalist and tore his charging wire.

At the same time, the filming crew of Suspilne media was attacked as well. The unidentified priest pushed the correspondent Daria Nematian Zolbin breaking the mount on the camera of the operator Viktor Mozgovyi.

The journalist was trying to speak to the Metropolitan Pavel of the UOC-MP about the work of the commission of the Ministry of Culture concerning the transfer of the Lavra buildings to the state.

In response, he said that he "did not see the commission", while one of the priests pushed the journalist on the shoulder, prevented the cameraman from filming, and broke the mount for the microphone on the camera.

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"Suspilne" representatives said they will appeal to the police regarding obstruction of journalistic activities.

The commission of the Ministry of Culture on the transfer to the state of the buildings used by the UOC-MP arrived at the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra later on Thursday morning.

However, the entrance to one of the buildings was blocked by members of the congregation who had come to worship at the Lavra in the morning, and the building itself was closed. The director of the cultural heritage department of the Ministry of Culture, Maryana Tomin, commented that the ministry will contact law enforcement officers if their work is further obstructed in the future.