Kyiv, February 22 (Navigator, Mikhail Ryabov) - The Kiev-Pechersk Lavra was surrounded by a group of several dozen unknown people, an assault is possible. The head of the press service of the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate, Vasily Anisimov, told Navigator about this.
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“Presumably these are militants from the Maidan. They barricaded the entrance to the lower Lavra and set up their patrols. It is possible that young people will be brought up and the assault will begin,” he said.
According to Anisimov, so far only 112 monks located there can stand up to defend the Lavra.
“I’m calling everyone now, but you see the situation - no one is there,” said the agency’s interlocutor.
In the 1990s, the Lavra was subject to attempts to storm the UNA-UNSO.
Added: Information from journalist Vlad Golovin:
“About the laurel. I was there half an hour ago. I talked with self-defense and with fathers. The self-defense fighters said that they were protecting the monastery from looting or possible encroachments... At the second entrance, the commander was more talkative. He explained that until the new minister takes over the staff of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the self-defense guards many objects in the city - the National Bank, the Security Service of Ukraine, museums, including the Lavra.
The fathers from the Lavra said that no one was capturing them, they communicated with the fighters quite normally. One of the fighters, by the way, said that he was waiting for some father Anthony, who wanted to talk to them. The only thing the monks said was that there was supposedly a rumor that they wanted to transfer the monastery to the KP tomorrow and therefore there was self-defense near the entrances to the monastery. But the monks themselves take this very calmly. “This is the house of the Mother of God, everything will be as She says.”
Self-defense is now really throughout the city and is protecting many objects, so it’s too early to panic, it seems to me. So far, it actually looks like regular self-defense patrols throughout the city.”