SBU declared Patriarch Kirill wanted
On December 16, the Security Service of Ukraine declared the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill (Vladimir Gundyaev), as wanted. This follows from the wanted database of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as reported by Detector Media.
He was said to be accused under Part 3 of Article 110 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – encroachment on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine, as well as under Part 2 of Article 437 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, for conducting aggressive warfare or aggressive military actions.
The date of disappearance of the Patriarch is indicated as November 11, with the place of disappearance being Moscow. The Ministry of Internal Affairs database also mentions the chosen preventive measure – detention.
On November 4, the Security Service of Ukraine announced suspicion against Patriarch Kirill, accusing him of "blessing" the murder of Ukrainians.
According to the investigation, he is part of the closest circle of the top military-political leadership of Russia and was one of the first to publicly support full-scale war against Ukraine.
The SBU reported that for propaganda dissemination, Gundyaev massively uses religious communities of the Russian Orthodox Church under his control on the territory of the Russian Federation, as well as representatives of the UOC (Moscow Patriarchate) in Ukraine. The SBU notes that Patriarch Kirill regularly spreads Kremlin narratives in the form of online sermons or his own video comments.
The Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill, supports the policy of Russian President Vladimir Putin. In his statements, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church vigorously supports Russian military aggression against Ukraine. In March 2022, Kirill de facto blessed the Russian army to go to war against Ukraine after the liturgy in Moscow.
In February, Swiss publications Le Matin Dimanche and Sonntagszeitung, citing data from the Swiss Federal Archives, reported that Patriarch Kirill (Gundyaev) worked in the 1970s in Geneva for the former Soviet foreign intelligence service KGB. He worked under the pseudonym "Mikhailov" and was supposed to influence the World Council of Churches.
In June of last year, the United Kingdom imposed sanctions against Patriarch Kirill. Besides him, the authorized representative for children's rights in Russia, Maria Lvova-Belova, fell under sanctions for her involvement in forcibly relocating and adopting Ukrainian children in Russia. This year, Gundyaev also appeared on the Czech Republic's sanctions list.
On August 30, 2022, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved proposals for personal sanctions against Kirill and seven other representatives of this Church.
On January 24, 2023, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine imposed sanctions against 22 Russian spiritual individuals. Among them was the nephew of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church and its representative to the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Mikhailo Gundyaev. Moscow Patriarch Kirill was included in the sanctions list from the Cabinet of Ministers but did not make it to the NSDC list.
