19 July 2014, RISU
On July 18, at the church-state celebrations in Sergiev Posad (near Moscow) dedicated to the 700 anniversary of St Sergius of Radonezh, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he intended to ask the Patriarch Kirill to participate in the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine.
The same day the head of the Russian Orthodox Church urged the international community not to perceive Russia as the aggressor. Meanwhile in Kyiv the evidence of Russia’s involvement in support of armed separatists in the Ukraine is exhibited”, reported Religion in Ukraine.
“I think we all should strive to this, the Patriarch will be asked to make a contribution in this appeasement”, Interfax reported Vladimir Putin’s words at a meeting with Patriarch Kirill and representatives of the Local Orthodox Churches in the Holy Trinity St Sergius Lavra.
In turn, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill urged the international community not to perceive Russia as the aggressor.
“God grant that Russia now is understood by those who do not understand it. God grant everyone to understand that Russia does not represent any military danger or other threats to people”. “We will be saved by unity and love”, we address this appeal of St. Sergius not only to the Russian world, but to the whole human race. And God grant that our Fatherland remained able to perform this covenant of the great saint of the Russian land,” said the head of the Russian Orthodox Church at the concert in Sergiev Posad.
According to Kirill, the historical Rus is “the most important thing that we need to preserve and pass on to future generations.” “And in this we must be of one mind and uphold our unity, the spiritual and human one. Whenever a disagreement ends, there’s love,” he said.
The Patriarch expressed confidence that “the grace of God will overcome all the internecine warfare and confusion in all historical spaces of Rus.” He also thanked Vladimir Putin, who was present at the concert, because he embodied the “consensus, which now reigns in our society”.
“It is important that the leader of the country was able to formulate these general ideas, ideas that bring people together,” said Kirill.
According to Religion in Ukraine, it is noteworthy that in those days in Kyiv at the memorial complex ‘The National Museum of the Great Patriotic War’, there was an exhibition of the evidence of Russia’s involvement in support of armed separatists in Ukraine. There are the trophies seized from militants, weapons and equipment of the Soviet and Russian manufacture, which is not available in Ukraine and is in service only with the Russian army. The Security Service of Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Interior of Ukraine presented the exhibition to the diplomats accredited in Ukraine. According to a UNIAN correspondent, Russian Ambassador Mikhail Zurabov was not present.
“I would have brought to this exhibition every European politician who mumbles about peaceful dialogue with Russia, and would have poked his nose into every piece. To understand what it is, it is a war. It’s a war against Ukraine, and nothing else. It is symbolic that the exhibition opened at the Museum of the Great Patriotic War. We won in that war, we will win in this one. Fascism is always doomed to failure”, commented Dmitry Timchuk, the Ukrainian military expert.
Source: Putin sets objective to Patriarch Kirill to convince the world that Russia is not an aggressor