U.P.Ts.M.P. URGES ZELENSKY AND PUTIN "TO PUT A STOP TO SIN OF ARMED CONFRONTATION"
Today, 28 February, the synod of the UPTsMP [Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate] published an appeal regarding Russia's military attack upon Ukraine. The hierarchs of the Moscow patriarchate call Ukrainians and Russians "brothers" and wish that the presidents of the two states would sit down to the negotiating table, come to agreement, and stop the war. The synod's appeal was published by the Department of Information and Enlightenment of the UPTsMP.
"We also appeal to Ukrainian President Vladimir Alexandrovich Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. In the name of the multimillion flock of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church we ask you to do everything possible in order to put an end to the sin of armed confrontation of the two fraternal peoples and to start the negotiation process. This horrid war has already delivered a severe blow to relations between the Ukrainian and Russian peoples. If the bloodshed does not stop immediately, the gulf between our peoples may last forever," the document says.
Separately the clergymen of the UPTsMP appeal to the head of the RPTs, Kirill, that he intensify prayer for the Ukrainian people and "call the leadership of the Russian Federation to immediately cease military operations which are threatening to turn into world war."
The UPTsMP hierarchs also gave assurances that they respect and pray for the defenders of Ukraine.
It should be noted that on the first day of the war, 24 February, the rhetoric of the leader of the Moscow patriarchate in Ukraine, Metropolitan Onufry, was more radical with regard to the enemy than the current statement by the synod. At that time, the UPTsMP primate unequivocally pointed to the perpetrator of the attack and urged Putin to stop the war and was not afraid to call his actions "a repetition of the sin of Cain." (tr. by PDS, posted 1 March 2022)
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