Ukraine’s Interior Ministry has placed the head of Russia’s Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, who has been a long-time supporter of the Kremlin’s war against Kyiv, on a wanted list for abetting the conflict and spreading Moscow’s propaganda, according to Reuters.
In November, the Security Service issued a document saying Kirill “infringed Ukrainian sovereignty” by virtue of his position as “part of the closest entourage of Russia’s military and political leadership.”
In 2012, Patriarch Kirill addressed Putin personally as the savior of modern Russia and compared his reign to a “miracle of God,” as per the Atlantic Council.
In his sermons, he has repeatedly accused “foreign forces” of trying to divide Russia and Ukraine, which he said are “one people” in an attempt to blame the war on the West while denying Ukraine’s right to be an independent state.
Patriarch Kirill has been accused of violating Article 110 of Ukraine’s criminal code and will face a lifetime sentence if detained.
According to Ukraine, Kirill has been using his influence on members of the Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church, to spread pro-Russian propaganda.
Moscow Patriarchate’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which claimed to have cut all ties with the Russian church in May, exists separately from the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which received autocephaly in 2018.
While conducting searches in 350 church buildings and premises in 2022, the Security Service found numerous leaflets declaring Ukraine’s independence “a mistake” and promoting “unity” with Russia.
Related:
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- Russification through the church
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- Statement of heads of Evangelical Protestant Churches of Ukraine on religious persecution in the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts
- Scholar: Russian Orthodox Church Moscow Patriarchate supports repressions, militarism
