The Ministry of Culture of Ukraine has prohibited students from being present at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra

In Ukraine, students, teachers, and staff of Kiev’s spiritual schools have been prohibited from studying on the territory of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery.

This is stated in an order from the head of the “Kyiv Pechersk Lavra” reserve, Maxim Ostapenko, which is published on the monastery’s Telegram channel.

According to the document, students of Kiev’s spiritual schools are equated with visitors to the Lavra, and therefore they are forbidden from being on its territory. Teachers and employees of the Kyiv Theological Academy and Seminary are also now considered visitors.

Earlier, the reserve prohibited visitors’ access to the Lower Lavra. Only students of the spiritual schools remained on the monastery’s territory. The police are inspecting the personal belongings of those leaving the Lavra’s premises.

Meanwhile, former MP and well-known church benefactor Vadim Novinsky stated that the current intensification of pressure on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the situation surrounding the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra are happening in the interests of the Ecumenical Patriarch.

“The takeover of the Lavra is not about ‘spiritual independence,’ but actions in the interests of the foreign center – the Phanar and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew,” the politician wrote on his Facebook page.