Today, in many temples run by the Russian Orthodox Church, clerics preach justification and importance of a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. But why does the Russian Orthodox Church support the attack on Kyiv in the first place?
In fact, the Moscow patriarch Cyril (Gundyaev) is concerned about the assets of his local parishes.
This was reported by the Belarusian newspaper Novy Chas with reference to the Polish media.
Since 2019, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine has gained independence from Moscow, receiving a Tomos of autocephaly from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I. The ROC hopes that Russia’s victory in this war can change this situation.
“The war in Ukraine, which the leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church call ‘necessary,’ is, first of all, a modern crusade of the Russian Church, which seeks to regain the churches in Kyiv and all church assets in Ukraine,” the report said.
Having lost influence in Ukraine, Cyril (Gundyaev) not only lost control over Ukrainian souls, but also automatically lost control over parishes, their income and assets. And given that the annual budget of all Orthodox parishes in Ukraine reaches some US$15 billion, as journalists believe, the ROC’s motivation seems quite understandable.
