"We have just learned of their plans … to launch a smash-and-grab attack on the Lavra. Our people have overheard these men talking on the phone as they plotted the attack," he said in a video address.
A dozen opponents of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) have gathered outside the Lavra where monks loyal to the UOC have been holed up for two days, in defiance of the government's order to vacate the monastery.
Ukraine’s National Kiev-Pechersk Historical and Cultural Preserve gave the monks until March 29 to leave the sprawling cave monastery after an interdepartmental Ukrainian commission accused the UOC of violating the terms of an agreement on the use of state property.
Ukrainian Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko said the monks could stay if they joined the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine, a decision that may be "stimulated through the joint work of specialists and law enforcement officers."
Since the beginning of Russia's special military operation, the Ukrainian authorities have intensified their crackdown on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. In January, the Ukrainian government submitted a bill with the parliament to ban the activities of "Russia-affiliated" religious organizations in the country.