How Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine may have turned Kyiv's ancient monastery into a 'nest of spies'

The 1,000-year-old Pechersk Lavra monastic complex in Kyiv sits at the centre of Ukraine's religious life.  (AP Photo: Efrem Lukatsky)

If this is a Russian nest of spies, as Ukraine's government is suggesting, there could not be a more magnificent and grandiose place for alleged agents to hide.

Within the walls of this extraordinary 1,000-year-old complex, which includes a monastery, crypts, chapels and a labyrinth of subterranean caves, a brutal political game is playing out.