Kyiv orders house arrest for Orthodox leader.
The Ukrainian Prosecutor's Office is investigating Pavlo for allegedly justifying Russia's actions in Ukraine.
247 - A court in Kiev decreed on Saturday (01) the house arrest for 60 days of Metropolitan Pavlo. The cleric is a member of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (IOU), canonically linked to the Moscow Patriarchate, and abbot of the Cave Monastery, the scene of a religious conflict that unfolds in parallel with the armed conflict in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Prosecutor's Office is investigating Pavlo for allegedly justifying Russia's actions in Ukraine and for allegedly inciting religious hatred, due to his speeches against the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCI), which is canonically independent of Moscow.
The Russian Foreign Ministry stressed on Sunday (2) that President Volodymyr Zelensky's regime is not independent in its anti-clerical policy: the division of orthodoxy is an objective pursued by Washington.
On March 10, 2023, the monks of the IOU were forced to leave the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra monastery by March 29 for violating the terms of an agreement on the use of state property. The Ukrainian Minister of Culture, Oleksandr Tkachenko, said the monks could remain in the Lavra if they joined the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine (IOdaU), a decision that could be "stimulated by the joint work of experts and police."