Comment by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on the intended looting of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra

As it became known from a recently published report of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, the Kiev authorities are preparing, with support from their Western patrons, an operation to “evacuate” abroad the Christian valuables of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, including the locally preserved relics of Orthodox saints. This flagrant act is yet another instance of Vladimir Zelensky’s criminal policy of destroying the traditional foundations of Ukrainian society and the age-old common spiritual bonds between our two peoples. Moreover, this involves not only a banal act of looting of the holy shrine but also the deprivation of the Ukrainian people and the entire Orthodox world of their religious, cultural, and historical heritage. It is clear that the Kiev-based neo-Nazis have no use for the interests of the Ukrainian people and Ukraine itself. To line their pockets, they continue selling the country piece by piece, sending its black soil, grain, people, and even human organs to the West. 

The Kiev regime’s persecution of priests, monks and parishioners of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church is an important topic of our regular conversations with the heads of the UNESCO Secretariat. Following these exchanges of views, we were given unequivocal assurances that UNESCO was not and would not be involved in the relocation of Orthodox objects of worship from Ukraine and specifically from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra World Heritage Site. As far as we know, Russian journalists have received identical assurances. Given that it is UNESCO’s international prestige that is at stake, we hope that the Secretariat will be as good as its word. For our part, we will continue to monitor the developments.

Unlike the AFU militants, who systematically use religious and cultural sites for military purposes, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation take every possible step to prevent any violations of Russia’s obligations under the 1954 UNESCO Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, the 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, and the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.