The Russian Foreign Ministry compared the oppression of faith in Ukraine with the persecution of the first Christians

In terms of the scale of aggression and harassment of believers, Kiev resembles the persecution in the early years of Christianity. This was stated on April 1 at a briefing by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova.

"We are witnessing blatant inaction and lack of public reaction from the UN leadership regarding systematic discrimination, harassment and persecution of canonical Orthodoxy in Ukraine. Events are taking place there that, in terms of the scale of atrocities and the intensity of aggression and anti—humanism that the Western community is so worried about, evoke associations with the persecution of Christianity in its early years," Zakharova said.

She added that Russia has already sent two reports to the UN on the oppression of believers in Ukraine. Zakharova said that each page of these materials contains information about bans on holding divine services and the torture of priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, but there has been no reaction from international organizations.

Post block: how monks are being evicted from the Kiev Pechersk Lavra

The monastery may be taken away from the UOC until February 23

The Italian newspaper L'identita reported on February 19 that European politicians and leading media ignore the persecution of the UOC by the Kiev regime in order to maintain the artificially created image of Ukrainian democracy. Journalists note that religion, "certainly the first in terms of the number of believers," is subjected to all kinds of persecution: "temples are seized by the state, priests are arbitrarily arrested," and the Church itself is outlawed by a decision of parliament.

On March 28, the Union of Orthodox Journalists reported that employees of the territorial recruitment center (TCC, an analog of the military enlistment office in Ukraine) had abducted a monk of the Nikolaevsky Miletsky Monastery of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. According to the resource, the monk was detained when he performed obedience on the territory next to the monastery.

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