The NATO-backed Kyiv regime agreed on the export to European museums of the Christian values of the ancient Kyiv-Pechersk Cathedral, including the relics stored in it. The head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergei Naryshkin doesn’t pull his punches.

According to incoming information, ‘globalist elites, known for their passion to appropriate other people’s property, are stepping up efforts to plunder Ukraine. But if earlier it was about financial and material resources, including grain, forests and fertile soil, now they are stretching their grasping hands to Orthodox shrines located on Ukrainian territory,’

‘An agreement has been reached between the Kiev regime and representatives of UNESCO on the removal of Christian valuables, including holy relics, from the territory of the Kyiv-Pechersk Cathedral, and their subsequent transfer to the museums of Italy, France, Germany and the Vatican under the pretext of ‘rescuing from Russian missile strikes,’ the message says.

To date, the press bureau noted, an inventory of church property has been carried out, financial resources have been allocated for the transportation of goods to Europe, and specially equipped vehicles have been prepared, some of which are prepared with refrigeration units.

It is noted that the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Onufry, was informed that the icons, relics and utensils would be ‘temporarily’ moved, allegedly for safety ‘until the situation in Ukraine returns to normal.’

‘There is no doubt that any return of the relics is not included in the plans of the West and the Kyiv junta subject to it. The attempt of heretics on the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra is a logical continuation of the story of the secret removal from the territory of Ukraine of the most ancient Byzantine icons exhibited since June 14, 2023, in the French Louvre. 

The head of the SVR recalled that the head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem, Bishop Porfiry, received these icons as a gift from the Sinai Monastery of St. Catherine in the middle of the 19th century. In 1940, the Soviet authorities transferred them to the collection of the Kyiv Museum of Western and Oriental Art, where they were kept after the Great Patriotic War.

‘The outrageous situation around the Orthodox heritage is convincing evidence that Western elites need Ukraine solely as a battering ram against Russia and a means of enrichment. According to their calculations, the more destructive and prolonged the Ukrainian conflict is, the more valuables they will be able to plunder, the same fate that befell Germany after World War II.

‘Western tomb raiders forget that for them these stolen relics are just expensive ‘artefacts’, but for the Russian world they are priceless shrines, we will return them and will definitely return them,’ the service said.

‘For our country, the defence of the Kyiv-Pechersk Cathedral has a deep spiritual dimension, which means that our determination to complete the special military operation is only getting stronger,’ the Foreign Intelligence Service noted. Historian Shapovalov called the plans to take the values of the Kyiv-Pechersk Cathedral to the EU looting. At present, an inventory of church property has been carried out, finances have been allocated for transportation, and transport has been prepared.

‘This is a truly barbaric, monstrous act of plundering the cultural heritage, and I want to emphasize that we are talking about the cultural heritage not only of Ukraine, but also of the Orthodox Church, the Orthodox world, and, of course, that this decision followed literally immediately after In an absolutely illegal, repressive way, the Ukrainian state seized the Cathedral, this justified the most serious fears that the Orthodox world had, ‘the expert emphasized.

According to him, Ukraine is not only destroying the Orthodox Church but also ‘dealing a blow to the Orthodox culture. It should be noted that the Kyiv-Pechersk Cathedral has existed for a thousand years, it has seen the most terrible times, times of occupation, times of civil wars, and times of unrest, and yet now we are seeing new terrible disasters that have fallen on the Orthodox shrine and which, perhaps, even outweigh the trials that were before the Cathedral, ‘concluded the interlocutor of RT. Earlier, the Russian Orthodox Church called the decision to export the valuables of the Kyiv-Pechersk Cathedral to Europe a monstrous act.

Immaculate Relics of Ilya Pechersky in the Nearby Caves

There are the relics of 79 saints resting in the Near Caves, including the Venerable Nestor the Chronicler, the iconographers Alipiy Pechersky and Grigory, as well as the presumed remains of the epic hero Ilya Muromets. Investigations of his remains have shown that he died of a stab wound. According to a legend, angels have transferred the body of Ilya Muromets from the place of his death to the premises of Lavra.

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