The essentials in brief:
- House arrest and shackles for the head of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra
- Zelenskyj talks to Macron about peace plan
- Wall Street Journal calls for Evan Gershkovich’s release
A Ukrainian court has placed the head of the world-famous Kiev Cave Monastery, Pavlo, under house arrest for two months. The cleric of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is suspected of fueling religious disputes and justifying Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, Ukrainian media reported from the courtroom.
Pavlo has to wear electronic ankle bracelets. Contact with believers is forbidden to him. The 61-year-old denies the allegations and speaks of a political process. After a raid on the monastery, dozens of believers protested. Those gathered, including clergymen, waved religious symbols and prayed in front of Lavra Pechersk Monastery.
The metropolitan’s summons came just three days after a deadline for the UNESCO-listed monastery to be vacated. Until recently it was the seat of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, its monks lived for free in part of the monastery. They have announced that they intend to stay as long as possible.
The background to this are disputes about the use of the cave monastery and the position of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the country in general. Until the beginning of the war, the church was subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate.
The UN Security Council has a new rotating chairmanship: Russia (archive image)
Zelenskyj demands reform of the UN Security Council
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for a reform of the UN Security Council. Russia had previously chaired the panel. Only the day before, Russian artillery killed a five-month-old child and now he is taking over the presidency of the United Nations Security Council, Zelenskyy said in his daily video address on Saturday. “There is hardly anything imaginable that better demonstrates the complete bankruptcy of such institutions,” said the 45-year-old.
Exchange with Macron
In a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron, Zelenskyi spoke about the implementation of the “Ukraine peace plan.” The conversation lasted an hour and was detailed, Zelenskyj said. In the online service Telegram, Zelenskyj wrote that he and Macron had discussed “the next steps to implement” his government’s ten-point plan. “We have coordinated actions for the upcoming international events,” he added.
In conversation: Macron and Zelenskyj, here on the way to the EU summit in Brussels in February
Zelenskyj presented a ten-point peace plan last November, which includes, among other things, Ukraine’s territorial integrity, the fate of prisoners and food security in Ukraine.
After the talks between the two heads of state, the French Presidency announced that they had “taken stock of the military situation in Ukraine”. Macron reiterated “his support for Ukraine” to “put an end to Russian aggression”. It was also about the “worrying situation” at the Ukrainian nuclear power plant Zaporizhia, which has been occupied by Russia since March 2022.
attack on the free press
The Wall Street Journal has called for the immediate release of Evan Gershkovich, a Moscow-based correspondent arrested by Russia’s FSB security agency on suspicion of espionage.
“Evan’s case is a vicious affront to a free press and should provoke outrage among all free people and governments around the world,” the newspaper said on Twitter.
fab/ack (rtr, dpa, afp, kna)
This article will be continuously updated on the day of its publication. Reports from the combat zones cannot be independently verified.