Fundraising for Belarus and black accounting to support Russian aggression: First commission’s findings in the Lavra
The day before, the Ministry of Culture's commission visited the bell tower above the gallery to the Near Caves, a unique landmark where the Ivan Mazepa bell hangs, which is the oldest unmolten bell in Kyiv, dating back to 1683. Some alcohol bottles were found there, TSN reports.
The gallery leading to the nearby caves is cluttered and turned into a shopping pavilion.
“A huge booth of hundreds of square meters is just a place of super-profitable trade, and representatives of some entities that are banned in Ukraine also trade here," says Maksym Ostapenko, the newly appointed head of the National Reserve.
Along with clothes and icons, there are posters for sale with the faces of clergy members who have sided with the occupiers since 2014. There is also a business card of a UOC-MP monk from the Melitopol district, now occupied by Russian troops, with a mail.ru mailbox and an announcement about collecting donations for a monastery in occupied Crimea.
The monastery was selling literature published by the Russian Orthodox Church. Black accounting to support Russian aggression was recorded in notes, according to the TSN story.
Work on returning the historical monuments of the Kyiv Cave Monastery to state ownership continues in cooperation with the Security Service of Ukraine and the National Police. After checking the condition of all the monuments, it will be decided how to save the wooden structures while the doors are being sealed.
Within an hour, the crowd, fueled by rumors, went on the offensive and broke the seals of the inspected buildings. Law enforcement officers tried to prevent this, but a scuffle broke out, and the believers blocked the entrance to the caves. The management of the reserve has already filed a complaint with the police on charges of violating law and order.
