PATRIARCH KIRILL ACCUSES WESTERN POLITICIANS OF TRYING TO MAKE UKRAINIANS ENEMIES OF RUSSIA
Interfax-Religiia, 11 March 2022
Patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus Kirill condemned the West for intending to change the mentality of residents of Ukraine and to make them enemies of Russia, with whose people they have been linked "by a common historical destiny."
"At the start of the 1990s, Russia was promised that its security and dignity would be respected. However over time, forces openly viewing Russia as an enemy have approached close to its borders. NATO bloc countries have been increasing their military might year by year, month by month, without paying attention to Russia's fears that these weapons would be turned against it at some time. While the political forces that aimed to deter Russia did not intend to fight it with their own hands. They planned to use other means: they tried to make fraternal peoples—Russians and Ukrainians—enemies," the patriarch writes in a letter to the acting general secretary of the World Council of Churches, Archpriest Ioan Sauca.
According to the patriarch, NATO countries "spared no efforts nor resources, loading Ukraine with weapons and military instructors." However, what is most horrific, in his opinion, is that "it was not weapons but an attempt at 'reeducation,' a mental remaking of Ukrainians and Russians living there into enemies of Russia."
Patriarch Kirill thinks that it was with the same goal that Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew perpetrated in 2018 the church schism, which delivered a blow to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
The head of the Russian church also recalled the eight-year armed conflict in the Donbass, whose population defended their right to speak Russian and demanded respect for their historical and cultural tradition. "But the voices of the people were not heard just as the thousands of residents of the Donbass who peerished were not noticed. This tragic conflict became a part of the grand geopolitics, whose chief goal is weakening Russia," Patriarch Kirill considers with regret.
He also expressed concern about the fact that "russophobia is now spreading over the western world at an unprecedented rate," and leaders of western states are imposing economic sanctions on Russia, which cause harm to everybody. "At the same time they do not hesitate to say that they are trying to cause harm not only to the leaders or military commanders of Russia but also to the Russian people," the patriarch noted.
In conclusion, he urged members of the World Council of Churches to pray for the quick establishment of lasting peace, based on justice, and he expressed the hope that this inter-church association will be able "even in the current difficult time to remain a platform for unbiased dialogue, free from political preferences and a one-sided approach." (tr. by PDS, posted 11 March 2022)
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