more than half of Ukrainian children, or 4.3 million, have had to flee the fighting, according to Unicef

Since the outbreak of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill has distinguished himself by sermons mixing religion and politics, in which he supports Moscow’s military offensive without nuance, adorning it with mystical-civilizational colors.

On February 27, the patriarch described opponents of Moscow in Ukraine as “forces of evil” who want to break the historical unity between the two countries. 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 left the Russian sphere of influence in 2014 to move closer to the European Union and NATO. In 2019, it endowed itself with an Orthodox Church independent of the Moscow Patriarchate, a historic decision which put an end to more than three hundred years of religious supervision and provoked the anger of Russia and Kirill.

On Wednesday March 9, he devoted his sermon to the thesis according to which Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians are the components of“one people” that malicious neighbors seek to divide. “They are against our unity, against our spiritual roots and therefore, whether they call themselves believers or non-believers, they are against the will of God”, he asserted.

Patriarch Kirill, head of the powerful 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”.

In Europe, several Christian authorities addressed Kirill. On Thursday, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, president of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union, published a letter in which he “beg” the patriarch of“calling on the Russian authorities to immediately end hostilities against the Ukrainian people, to show good will to find a diplomatic solution”, and to set up humanitarian corridors.

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