Nationalists to picket Lavra during Patriarch Kirill's prayer linked to Yanukovych's inauguration

Interfax-Ukraine, 24 February, 2010

Around 600 representatives from the UNA-UNSO (Ukrainian National Assembly-Ukrainian People's Self-Defense) are planning to picket the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery on Thursday, as Head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill is to utter a ceremonial prayer on the occasion of the inauguration of Ukrainian President Elect Victor Yanukovych.

The head of the UNA-UNSO executive committee, Ruslan Zaichenko, told Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday that the organization had submitted an application to Kyiv City State Administration to hold a protest near the monastery from 08:00 to 10:00 on Thursday.

Zaichenko said that UNA-UNSO activists were planning to hold the protest due to the fact that such a church service "is very similar to the coronation of a vassal, which is humiliating for Ukrainians."

He said that the UNA-UNSO wanted to remind Yanukovych that Ukraine has not only the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate, but also the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate, as well as Greek Catholics, Jews, Tatars, and Muslims whose president is also Yanukovych.

"It's necessary to be the president of Ukraine, not Donetsk region," Zaichenko said.