Patriarch Filaret of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate explains how the war in Donbas influences the Church

Patriarch Filaret has spoken about the war in Ukraine and the conflict of Churches in our country. The Church also was affected by the war in eastern Ukraine. This was stated by Patriarch Filaret, Head of the UOC-KP in an interview with ‘Nastoyashchee Vermya’ TV Channel. 

According to him, with the onset of war the Ukrainians started distinguishing, which Church is a truly Ukrainian Church, “which Church defends the Ukrainian interests, Ukrainian state, and which is protecting the interests of Russia.” “Therefore, people were able to see who is who. As a result, lots of people, not tens but hundreds of thousands of parishioners of the Moscow Patriarchate have changed and are changing their affiliation to the Kyiv Patriarchate,” said Patriarch Filaret.

He also commented on the distinguishing features of the ‘peace’, advocated by the UOC (MP). “We do not want the peace on the condition of slavery, we do not want Ukraine to become part of the Russian Empire again. We do not want such peace. We want a just peace, and a just peace means that Ukraine should be an independent state, the state which is friendly to all European states, including Russia,” said the Patriarch of the UOC-KP. It was reported by RBC-Ukraine.