“No one raises the question of the eviction of the monks.
We are talking about the return of state-owned property... If anyone has to leave, then these are the leaders who have been illegally building on UNESCO territory for many years, ”the minister said on the air of the telethon.
His words are quoted by RIA Novosti.
When asked by a journalist about where the monks of the UOC would “go” if the property of the monastery was transferred to the state, Tkachenko said that they could go to the OCU.
“I think that our joint work, specialists and law enforcement officers will stimulate their decision,” Tkachenko said.
The National Reserve "Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra" obliged the monks of the canonical UOC to leave the buildings of the reserve until March 29.
After that, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov sent letters to the leadership of the UN and the OSCE because of the persecution of the canonical Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' appealed to Pope Francis, UN Secretary General António Guterres with a call to prevent the expulsion of the monks of the UOC from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.