Lavra parishioner: We ask Zelensky – turn your face to conscience
An elderly believer reminded Zelensky that the monks rebuilt the monastery from Soviet ruins, and that the people gave their money for the monastery, not the for reserve.
Parishioner Lydia, who is defending against the seizure of the building of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, said that the authorities are now creating criminal lawlessness in the monastery. The video was published on the Lavra Now telegram channel.
“The monks, whom the court is now asking to leave the monastery, were invited in 1988 to the so-called Soviet reserve to restore order here,” Lidia recalled. “Everything here was completely neglected and littered: buildings were destroyed, temples were ruined. Since that time, the monks have brought such order that, probably, there is no such thing in Jerusalem. They have lived here for 35 years. They gave their youth, strength and health. Their parents, relatives, parishioners donated funds not for the reserve, but for the restoration of the desecrated shrine. Many monks sold their apartments and houses.”
“And now there is an ‘owner’ who needs to expel the monks. The leaders, on the orders of Volodymyr Zelensky, decided to close the monastery and expel the monks. But they are now 85, 80, 70 years old. Where should they go and why?” says the parishioner of the Lavra.
She says that the parishioners filed an appeal with signatures to the Supreme Court and then to all international courts “to protect the monks of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra from such cruelty of the judges of the Economic Court, our President Volodymyr Zelensky, director of the reserve.”
“We ask the President to, first of all, turn his face to his conscience and think about the fact that he was elected by the people. He is not a king. Neither is Poroshenko. And he needs to think that people, as they lived before him, will live after him. They endured revolution, famine, Siberia, persecution. They will endure this trial too,” concluded Lydia.
Earlier, the UOJ wrote that the acting director of the reserve allowed for the possibility of dispersing Lavra parishioners with water cannons.
