Ukraine’s Security Service has accused a Moscow-backed Orthodox cleric of inciting religious hatred and trying to justify the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine.
Petro Lebid, abbot of the 980-year-old Kiev-Pechersk Lavra — also often known as the Kiev Monastery of Caves — has been sentenced to 60 days of house arrest in reference to a crackdown on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church over accusations of collaborating with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Moscow.
The church said the Kiev court also ordered Lebid to wear an electronic bracelet.
The priest has since publicly denied the accusations.
“I didn’t do anything” Lebid said. “I think it’s a political order”
Ukrainian news agency Tass reported that Lebid was ordered to live in a village about 25 miles southeast of Kiev, but Lebid said the home was uninhabitable.
“There may be nothing to sleep on, no heating or light,” said the priest.
“There is no such thing as a kitchen, there is no such thing as a spoon. But it surely’s okay, I can handle it.”
Lebid previously lived in a monastery, but the federal government ordered him to leave the church before midnight on Wednesday.
![Lebid's lawyer, Mykyta Checkman, represented the priest at the hearing in the Kyiv District Court.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/NYPICHPDPICT000009070888.jpg?w=1024)
Nevertheless, followers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church refused to leave the monastery and didn’t allow officials to enter the constructing, which sparked a fight that broke out early Thursday morning.
Ukraine’s Minister of Culture Oleksandr Tkachenko condemned the “brutal” response of government officials and said a criticism had been filed against the police
Since then, Russia has expressed outrage on the repression of the Orthodox Church.
“Such actions plunge Ukraine an increasing number of into the Middle Ages within the worst sense of the word,” MFA spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote in Telegram.