Patriarch Kirill, of Moscow and All Russia
The RIA News Agency has reported that the Patriarch delivered a speech during a meeting with learners of the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Federation Ministry for Foreign Affairs at the Christ the Savior Cathedral, in which he noted: "Currently there is a forceful opposition against our Church - three clergymen have been killed, over ten priests have been arrested, detained, and tortured, and many clerics have been expelled from the country. Approximately fifty of our churches are either completely destroyed or heavily damaged by precision strikes of the Ukrainian artillery."
Speaking about the tragic events in Ukraine, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church noted that the Church consistently supports a position on peace, disapproves of bloodshed, and tirelessly encourages both sides to have a dialog and peace.
"Today there is no other peaceful force in Ukraine, but the one of the Russian Orthodox Church. Considering our historical experience, we do not identify ourselves with either of the sides of this civil conflict," His Holiness, Patriarch Kirill, pointed out.
Comment: Since ancient times, monasteries, churches, and other holy buildings have been legally designated as places of asylum, allowing such shelters to grant refuge to anyone. Unfortunately, no asylum can grant protection from violence by the Ukraine military who have deliberately and heartlessly bombed churches, shelters and water systems with no concern for the humanitarian disaster they have created.
Ukraine's self-destruction: Unique church shelled, burnt to the ground
Kiev Nazis murder over 40 children in Donbass
Eastern Ukraine becomes a new Gaza thanks to Western intervention