The Russian Orthodox Church was criticized for its soft position on Ukraine
The split in world Orthodoxy became possible because the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) took an overly soft position on the Ukrainian issue.
The leader of the Essence of Time movement, Sergei Kurginyan, stated this on the Rossiya-1 TV channel.
"The Russian Orthodox Church took an incredibly soft stance in Ukraine. Patriarch Kirill acted with a degree of leniency that was problematic for those demanding a firmer stance. Hilarion (Chairman of the Russian Orthodox Church's Department for External Church Relations – ed. ) was one of the advocates of peace in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church treated the Ukrainian troops entering Donbas with extreme tolerance. Every possible concession was made, just so long as this Moscow Patriarchate can be abandoned," Kurginyan said.
He believes that the liberal wing of the Russian Orthodox Church has only now realized its mistake and changed its rhetoric.
“When these concessions began, everything was already determined. They took it and roughly broke it. They said: you are trying to flirt with us and be loyal, you will get hit in the face, and that will be the end. And only now the liberal wing of the Russian Orthodox Church began to directly name the amount of the bribe and talk about Bartholomew’s connections with the Americans. A year ago we could not hear these words,” the expert emphasized.
The Russian Orthodox Church has been criticized for its soft stance on Ukraine.