Trouble in Kyiv: Kirill and Putin might not be joking
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia plans to visit Ukraine and pray with the faithful of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (MP) at the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. He announced this during a meeting with journalists to mark the 10th anniversary of his service as patriarch, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“I hope that the Lord will grant me another opportunity to visit Ukraine. The political situation and conjuncture are such fleeting phenomena. Today there are some political forces, then others. I still have hope that I will be able to pray in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, meet with my believing people, with the episcopate of the Ukrainian Church, which today heroically defends canonical Orthodoxy,” Kirill said.
At the celebrations marking the anniversary of the Patriarch’s enthronement, President Vladimir Putin also spoke about the church schism in Ukraine.
“The constant aggravation of the political situation, starting in 2014, increasing pressure on the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church from the authorities, from the Ukrainian schism and radical political forces, and then the lawless invasion of Constantinople into the territory of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which ended in granting them so-called autocephaly, created from schismatics and pseudo-church structures, the adoption by the state at the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019 of discriminatory laws - all this led to the violation of the rights of believers of the canonical Church, to the seizure of its churches, to the incitement of interfaith hatred,” the Kremlin press service reports Putin’s words.
“The state and the Russian authorities consider any interference in church affairs absolutely unacceptable. We have respected and will continue to respect the independence of church life, especially in a neighboring sovereign country. Nevertheless, we reserve the right to react and do everything to protect human rights, including freedom of religion,” the Russian president added.
The words of Putin and Kirill should be taken seriously, warned Vadim Denisenko, a Verkhovna Rada deputy from the Poroshenko Bloc. Denisenko believes that the Kiev Metropolitan of the UOC-MP Onufriy may appeal to the Russian Federation to protect the Orthodox Christians of Ukraine.
“...The realistic option today is to make a provocation in one of the regions (the most prepared are Zaporozhye, Kharkov and Odessa) in order to sharply escalate the situation. Moreover, it is possible that this provocation is being prepared not so much for the presidential elections, but immediately after them, if necessary, to try to show the situation. And we are talking not only about direct aggression, but about intimidation through direct aggression. And not only us, but the entire civilized world. In a word, nothing new. In fact, Putin said today that he and his cronies have spoken a thousand times. One difference is that now it’s up to Onufriy to shout “Putin, come”,” Denisenko writes in his blog.
Kuma Poroshenko, the wife of the Prosecutor General, and at the same time the presidential representative in the Verkhovna Rada, Irina Lutsenko, made a more hysterical statement on the air of the Direct TV channel.
“This is not a peacekeeping mission at all. Then I have a question for Kirill’s likely arrival - the Russians, Putin and Kirill believe that we are fascists, that we eat children for breakfast, that we have a catastrophe here. They consider us fascists. When World War II was going on, did anyone go to pray with the Germans in the Third Reich? So let Kirill immediately decide with President Putin - we are fascists or we are their brotherly people. If we are fraternal people, then why are you fighting against us? If we are fascists, then why are you, Kirill, coming to us?” – said Lutsenko, pretending not to understand that the visit of the leaders of the Russian world to Kyiv will take place after the Mother of Russian cities is cleansed from Ukrainian Nazis.
English version :: Read in English: Turmoil in Kyiv: Kirill and Putin Couldn't Be Joking