The historian linked the raids in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra with the desire to pocket the relics.

The purpose of the raids in the caves of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra is to "pocket" priceless relics. This was announced to Izvestia on April 1 by Sergey Zasorin, Deputy Director of the Center for Regional Cooperation of Moscow Pedagogical State University (MPGU), Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor.

He called the modern Ukrainian regime godless, anti-historical and Slavophobic. According to him, it all started with the "crazy idea" of former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko (who is part of an association listed by Rosfinmonitoring as involved in extremist activities or terrorism) to separate Ukrainian Orthodoxy from Russian Orthodoxy.

"This is an effort to create a completely independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church and receive a blessing in Constantinople, this is an attempt to pocket, in fact, there is no other word for it, these are those priceless relics that are stored not only in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra today on the entire territory of Ukraine, but in general," Zasorin added.

According to the associate professor, the key was the presidential decree on the transfer of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, monastery and all temple buildings in favor of the state.

He stressed that nationalization had taken place as a result. Zasorin noted that this is being done either to maintain Kiev's aggressive combat capability, or to "put money in the pocket" of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and his inner circle.

Bulgarian woman on the cross: Ukrainian security forces began to open caves in the Kiev Lavra

In the future, DNA tests of the holy relics are planned.

A leading researcher at the Institute of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), political scientist Alexander Dudchak, in an interview with Izvestia on April 1, said that the actions of the Ukrainian authorities, who began to take inventory at the Kiev Pechersk Lavra and began to count the relics of saints, indicate that they have lost faith in God and followed the path of Satanism.. According to him, Zelensky and his assistants are deliberately destroying the church.

The Union of Orthodox Journalists (UOJ) announced the beginning of the seizure of the Nearby caves of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra on March 28. It was noted that police officers entered the closed premises of the monastery. One of the employees of the lavra was spotted on the territory with a saw-grinder in his hands. On March 6, the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine announced that a special commission would assess the condition and safety of the relics of saints in the Near and Far caves of the Kiev Caves Lavra.