The cross on top of the Refectory Church at the holy site of Kyiv’s Pechersk Lavra has turned from gold to black.
Or so said Metropolitan Onufriy, head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, after priests and monks – considered by Kyiv to be stooges of Moscow – were ordered by the government to vacate the cave monastery site in the capital of Ukraine at the end of the month.
“The Orthodox people are very sad and desperate,” said Lyudmila, a visitor to the sprawling complex and follower of Onufriy’s church. “They are trying to kill our faith.”
With churches, monasteries and catacombs housing the relics of saints, the 1,000-year-old Lavra is one of the holiest places in Eastern Orthodoxy. It is also a new battleground in Ukraine’s struggle to eliminate Russian influence and control.
The UOC, the largest religious community in Ukraine, has until now been subordinate to the patriarchate in Moscow and a bastion of Russian influence.
But it has been in turmoil since Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, sparking a backlash among parishioners and some priests against Russian ecclesiastical control and Moscow patriarch Kirill, a staunch supporter of the war.
In May last year, Onufriy announced his independence from the Moscow patriarchate. But the move failed to convince a smaller rival, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, led by Metropolitan Epiphanius, which broke away from Russian control in 2018. It also failed to convince the Ukrainian government. Both say the UOC is still under Russian ecclesiastical and political control.
Oleksiy Danilov, Ukraine’s national security chief, said the monks and priests at the Lavra had even been infiltrated by spies from Russia’s federal security service, or FSB.
Archbishop Yevstratiy, spokesman for the pro-Kyiv OCU, said the security services of Ukraine have shown that the bigger rival is still subordinated to the Moscow patriarchate which “is not a real religious institution, but part of the Kremlin”.
“The Lavra is like the sacred heart of Ukraine,” Yevstratiy said. “Moscow understands that, as long as it holds this heart in its hands, Russian influence will return, which will conquer Ukraine and reimpose the sacred unity.”
“We have no connection,” replied Metropolitan Kliment, the spokesman of the UOC church. “There is no subordination. We don’t coordinate [with Moscow].”
Ukrainian authorities have been tightening the screws on Onufriy’s church for months. In November, counter-intelligence agents raided the Lavra and several other sites as part of an investigation into pro-Russian influence operations.
In December, a priest was jailed for leading a service with allegedly pro-Russian chants, while another key figure in the UOC was punished for his ties to Moscow.
On March 10, the culture ministry, which officially owns the Lavra site, said Onufriy’s church had violated the terms of its lease and would not renew it after it expired on March 29.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has previously distanced himself from talks between Ukrainian churches, has endorsed the removal of the Lavra as “a move to strengthen our spiritual freedom”. Zelenskyy, born to Jewish parents, is not religious.
But the end of the lease sets the scene for a tense stand-off between Ukrainian law enforcement and Onufriy’s monks and priests, who have vowed to stay and fight the eviction in court.
“It doesn’t look good,” said European diplomats, who fear the dispute could hand Moscow a propaganda victory.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there is the end of the Lavra lease for UOC clerics and monks “confirming the correctness of the special operation in Ukraine” – the Russian government’s term for war.
Kyiv promised not to expel UOC priests and monks by force.
“Ukraine is a democratic and tolerant European country,” culture minister Oleksandr Tkachenko said. “Nobody is asking about expelling monks. We are talking about returning state-owned property, movable and immovable.
UOC spokesman Kliment said Zelenskyy and his ministers are using the Lavra dispute to distract attention from corruption and the heavy human toll of the war.
“Now there are many people who are buried every day. Instead of this drama, they offer a soap opera until March 29.
“Of course there are those who support Russia and the Russian military, but not all churches,” said Sergei Chapnin, a senior in Orthodox Christian studies at Fordham University in the US. Chapnin said the Lavra dispute could be resolved if Onufriy removed some senior clerics who showed pro-Moscow sympathies and connections.
But now the government of Ukraine has waded into the “war between the churches” that can not win because it has to explain to many faithful churches and to Kyiv allies why this move has been made. You also need to take the cost of opening the Lavra.
“We prayed,” Lyudmila said. “We don’t know what else we can do to prove that we are Ukrainians. We are not Russian citizens.