PATRIARCH KIRILL: UKRAINE DELIBERATELY DESTROYING RPTs CHURCHES IN DONBASS
Religiia v Ukraine, 26 November 2014
The primate of the Russian Orthodox Church [RPTs] Patriarch Kirill is sure that all of the RPTs church buildings that were damaged in the Donbass during armed conflicts were victims of "deliberate strikes" on the part of Ukrainian armed forces. This important declaration, which was unnoted by news media, was made by the head of RPTs on 13 November in Moscow at a meeting with auditors of Advanced Diplomatic Studies of the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian MID [Ministry of Foreign Affairs}, a correspondent of the Religiia v Ukraine portal reports.
Participants in the meeting, which occurred in the Red Hall of the church of Christ the Savior, included the chairman of the Department of External Church Relations [OVTsS] of the Moscow patriarchate, Metropolitan of Volokolamsk Ilarion; the rector of the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian MID, E.P. Bazhanov; the first prorector of the academy, T.A.Zakurtseva; the principal of the department of Personnel of the Russian MID, V.V. Isupov; and the secretary of OVTsS for foreign affairs, Archpriest Sergei Zvonarov. The audience included newly appointed ambassadors of Russia to Afghanistan, North Korea, Malta, Peru, Syria, and other countries, and also persons assigned for service abroad as consuls general and envoys.
Patriarch Kirill informed the audience of the foreign activity of RPTs. In particular, speaking of tragic events in Ukraine, he once again declared that RPTs occupies a peacemaking position and speaks out against bloodshed and consistently calls both sides to dialogue and peace. "Today there is not in Ukraine another peacemaking force other than the Russian Orthodox Church. In view of our historic experience, we do not identify ourselves with one or another of the sides in the civil conflict," the official website of RPTs quotes Vladyka Kirill.
However Pariarch Kirill indirectly accused the Ukrainian side of "violent actions" against the RPTs. "There now are being carried out violent actions against our church: three priests have been killed, more than a dozen have been arrested, imprisoned, and tortured, and many have been driven from the country, Vladyka Kirill said, without specifying that they had been accused of supporting separatists, and one of the priests died, in all likelihood, at the hands of pro-Russian militants. These same priests of UPTs of the Moscow patriarchate, who have engaged in spiritual nurture of Ukrainian troops in the ATO zone, maintain that "today's fighters are tomorrow's parishioners of our churches."
Further in his speech, Patriarch Kirill spoke about approximately 50 RPTs church buildings that had suffered complete or partial destruction in the Donbass. Vladyka Kirill thinks that with respect to these buildings the Ukrainian army deliberately dealt destructive blows: "About 50 of our churches have been completely destroyed or severely damaged by deliberate strikes from Ukrainian artillery."
It should be noted that the patriarch did not support his statement about deliberate bombardment of RPTs church buildings in the Donbass, to say nothing of all church buildings, with any evidence. To do so would really be difficult, since in the first place this could be confirmed or denied by the shooters themselves. However, according to a priest of ROCOR who is located in the ATO zone as a Ukrainian chaplain, nobody has deliberately shelled churches. Archdeacon Andrei Kuraev expressed a similar opinion in September: "There is no basis to think that Kiev is conducting a deliberate attack on churches. But, alas, in war everything is possible, including even the shelling of churches, even more so since on both sides amateurs are fighting who shoot badly."
Earlier it was frequently reported that as a result of military actions in the Donbass, churches of various confessions, including houses of worship of UPTsMP, UGKTs, Baptists, and Muslims, had been destroyed by shelling by the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian separatists. (tr. by PDS, posted 30 November 2014)