"Where were you?" Odesa Regional Council deputy defends UOC-MP in Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and speaks of "evil spirits" in Ukraine

Odesa Regional Council deputy Trifon Antov, a member of the For the Future faction, stood up for the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine. He called the Ukrainians who protested against the UOC-MP near the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra "evil spirits".

On his Facebook page, the Odesa deputy said that people near the Lavra were "dancing and going crazy". In addition, he began to make "claims" to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

Antov asked the OCU believers "where were they" when "the UOC and "the holy fathers were restoring the ruins".

"I have a question for the OCU and the evil spirits who were dancing and running amok near the Lavra. Where were you when the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the holy fathers of the church were restoring the ruins, and many of them were imprisoned for the Orthodox faith, where were you?" - the MP wrote.

It should be noted that Antov has repeatedly made strange statements. For example, in 2021, the MP believed in one of the conspiracy theories about the coronavirus pandemic. He suggested that the virus was linked to planes spraying a substance in the air.

He wrote that he had been approached by people who "saw planes flying over their houses and spraying an unknown substance". After that, he said, the villages smelled of chemicals. He also posted a picture saying that the World Health Organisation (WHO) is "poisoning Europe", and "a number of countries have even sued it for this."

As OBOZREVATEL previously reported, on March 10, the Ministry of Culture announced the termination of the lease agreement between the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and the UOC-MP monastery due to violations of the lease agreement. Representatives of the UOC-MP had until March 29 to leave the territory of the national reserve.

On the day of the eviction, Metropolitan Pavlo, the abbot of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, said that the monks of the UOC-MP were not going to leave the territory. They stated that the lease of the Lavra would allegedly end on March 29, 2045, and filed a lawsuit, which has already been dismissed.

Meanwhile, the monks of the UOC-MP and the believers brought to the Lavra are blocking the work of the commission and do not recognise the court's decision. Proceedings have been opened over this fact, as well as over the journalists' claims of obstruction of their professional activities.

On April 1, Ukrainians held a protest against the UOC (MP) near the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. The rally was attended by several hundred people. At the same time, the priests of the Moscow Patriarchate installed loudspeakers and tried to shout down their opponents.

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