On Sunday, the Russian Orthodox Patriarch, Kirill Ierspoke about the conflict: “May God preserve us from the current political situation in Ukraine, a brother country that is close to us, being used in such a way that the forces of evil prevail”he said during his sermon, supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
According to him, the “forces of evil” are those who “fight unity” of the Russian Orthodox Church with the countries resulting from Rus, a medieval state which is considered the ancestor of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. However, Ukraine has since 2014 left the Russian sphere of influence to move closer to the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
In 2019, it established an Orthodox Church independent of the Moscow Patriarchate, a historic decision that ended more than three hundred years of Russian religious supervision and angered Russia and Kirill.
“We must do everything to preserve peace between our peoples and at the same time protect our common historic homeland from all those actions from outside that can destroy this unity”continued the patriarch. “We must not allow external and hostile dark forces to mock us”he added, calling to pray for “restoring peace” and relationships of ” good neighborhood “.
Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church since 2009, is one of the pillars of the system put in place by Vladimir Putin. He does not hesitate to justify police repression of opposition demonstrations or to bless Moscow’s arms and wars abroad. In 2012, he expressed his loyalty by proclaiming that Mr. Putin’s presidency was “a miracle of God”.