The Russian Orthodox Church called the actions in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra a mockery of believers.

The so-called "inventory of relics", due to which believers and clergy were denied access to the caves of the Kiev Caves Lavra, is only an excuse to continue pressure on the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). This opinion was expressed on April 2 in a conversation with Izvestia by Vakhtang Kipshidze, Deputy Chairman of the Synodal Department for Church-Society Relations and the Media.

"I think that the inventory of the relics is just a definite excuse to continue putting pressure on the canonical UOC to deprive it of its revered shrines and ultimately force it to submit to a schismatic, robber, quasi—religious community called the OCU (Orthodox Church of Ukraine. — Ed.)," said Kipshidze.

He recalled that in recent years, the Ukrainian authorities have been actively persecuting the priests of the UOC, seizing churches and monasteries, and instituting criminal cases against the clergy, passing "knowingly lawless sentences."

"As this policy continues to escalate, its next stage is the desecration of shrines and mockery of believers. This is actually being implemented under the pretext of the so—called inventory of relics," concluded the representative of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC).

On April 5, at 18:00, the REN TV channel will release a film dedicated to the situation with the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, "Tomb Desecrators: 5 Harbingers of Disaster."

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.

Earlier on April 2, Bogdan Bezpalko, a political scientist, member of the Council on Interethnic Relations under the President of Russia, deputy director of the Center for Ukrainian and Belarusian Studies at Moscow State University, said in an interview with Izvestia that the closure of access to the caves of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra was a demonstrative blasphemy on the part of the Ukrainian authorities.

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.

Sergey Zasorin, Deputy Director of the Center for Regional Cooperation at Moscow Pedagogical State University (MPGU), Candidate of Historical Sciences, associate Professor, told Izvestia that the purpose of the raids in the caves of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra is to pocket priceless relics.