The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) declares that it has collected “substantiated evidence” of its suspicions that Metropolitan Pavlo Lebid, abbot of the Orthodox monastery of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, allegedly incites religious enmity and supports Russia’s war in Ukraine, reports Independent Kyiv. He will also be summoned to the hearing, reports The Guardian with reference to the BBC.

The Security Service of Ukraine reported that it suspects the Metropolitan of the Russian-controlled Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UPC MP) of violating the Criminal Code of Ukraine, namely “inciting religious enmity, justifying and denying the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine.” .

The news comes amid growing controversy over the decision of the metropolitan and other members of the Russian-backed Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UPC MP) to stay in an old monastery in Kyiv, despite Ukrainian government calls for them to leave the building.

On March 10, the Ministry of Culture issued a statement that the monks of the Ukrainian branch of the Russian Orthodox Church must leave the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra (“Pecherska” means “cave”), the most important Orthodox monastery in Ukraine, but the Moscow Patriarchate refused. .

“We are not collaborators,” said the Primate of the Lavra, Metropolitan Pavlo Lebid.

Since November, the SBU has conducted dozens of searches in the temples of the Moscow Patriarchate, including the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.

During searches in Ukraine, the SBU found Russian propaganda, xenophobic literature, as well as Russian passports of church leaders and documents with pro-Russian ideological messages.

The Russian-controlled church’s lease for part of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, called the Upper Lavra, expired on January 1, and the Ukrainian government decided not to renew the lease.

Later, the Ukrainian authorities announced that on March 29 they would also terminate the indefinite lease of the remaining part, the Lower Lavra, of the Russian-linked church, accusing it of violating the terms of the lease.

The Russian-backed church argued that the termination of the lease was illegal.

Lebyd, pro-Russian messages and denial of Ukraine’s statehood

On December 2, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi also imposed sanctions against the abbot of the Pechersk Lavra and former deputy from the pro-Russian Party of Regions Lebid.

Lebid held consistent pro-Russian views and called for “unity” with Russia. He also stated that “Crimea was never Ukrainian.”

In November, social media users shared a video in which a priest of the Moscow Patriarchate sings a prayer for “Mother Russia” together with parishioners of one of the Lavra churches. Later, the priest was suspended by the Moscow church.

The Pechersk Lavra in Kyiv, founded in 1051, is one of the first monasteries of Kyivan Rus. Until 1688, it belonged to the Ukrainian branch of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, when it was annexed by the Russian Orthodox Church.