No one manipulates the Russian Orthodox Church from the Kremlin to make its leaders and clerics justify the Russian war on Ukraine, as French President Emmanuel Macron said. The ROC is an integral part of the Kremlin regime, says Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations.
Addressing religious theologians and their benefactors in Italy, Macron said that “we know very well how the Orthodox religion is being manipulated today by those in power in Russia to justify their actions,” and called on the ROC priests to “resist such pressure.”
Ukraine’s envoy to the UN made corrections to the French President’s statement via Twitter.
“An important thing – not manipulated but is a part and parcel of criminal regime,” he tweeted.
It should be recalled that on September 27, ROC Patriarch Kirill in his sermon supported the military call-up claiming it will help “reconcile” Ukraine and Russia. The mobilization for war with Ukraine, according to him, will allegedly allow Ukraine to be brought into the single space of the Russian Church.
At a time when Russia was occupying hundreds of square kilometers of Ukrainian land, on October 14, 2022, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow asked Russians to have no doubt and urged them to pray to the Mother of God for the protection of Russia’s borders from Ukraine. Despite the fact that most of the world recognizes the crimes committed by the Russians, Gundyaev stubbornly continues to preach the myths of Moscow propaganda about the piety of Russians.
He called for the “power of God” to eradicate thoughts that do not strive for the “unity of Holy Russia.” Gundyaev also said that external forces seek to destroy Russia because of “alternative views on the world.”
The Ecumenical Patriarch said that it is better for Patriarch Kirill to leave the throne than to support the war.
