ISTANBUL

Russia on Monday said Ukraine’s actions against the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery are an “intentional effort” to incite “religious hatred,” accusing President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of doing the US’ bidding.

“It is an open secret that the Zelenskyy regime is in no way independent when it comes to its anti-ecclesiastic policies. Creating a schism within the Orthodoxy and delivering a blow (to it) … has long been Washington’s stated goal,” read a Russian Foreign Ministry statement.

It said the Zelenskyy government’s policies against Ukraine’s most revered Orthodox site have been, both directly and indirectly, influenced by the US through an “intricate mechanism,” including the appointment of a “special representative for freedom of religion.”

The Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery has been at the center of a bitter religious conflict unfolding along with the Russia-Ukraine war.

It is run by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which split from Moscow last May after centuries under its control but is still labeled by Kyiv and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) as “pro-Russian.”

Since the war began in February last year, Ukraine has targeted several sites and clergy members of the UOC on various pretexts, including supporting Moscow’s aggression against its western neighbor.

Most recently, Ukrainian authorities last week told monks to vacate the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra complex, an order they have resisted.

Metropolitan Pavel, the monastery’s abbot, was also placed under house arrest on charges of justifying Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

Labeling Zelenskyy Washington’s “henchman,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said he “understands the extent to which he depends on the US” and accused him of following “an anti-Orthodox policy on the instructions of the Americans, who have an anti-Russia agenda.”

Kyiv’s attempt to seize the monastery “is illegitimate in terms of law and immoral from a spiritual perspective,” the ministry said.

“It demonstrates better than many other steps the regime has taken or its rhetoric, its criminal nature and readiness to turn a blind eye to the feelings and, even more importantly, the rights of people, including Ukrainian citizens,” the statement additionally claimed.

The Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox churches were united up until 2018 when then-President Petro Poroshenko moved to set up the OCU as an autonomous entity.

When the split happened, Orthodox properties were divided and many went to the newly founded OCU.

It has long wanted to gain control of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery, which remained with the UOC.​​​​​​​