▲ Patriarch Cyril
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, a close aide to President Vladimir Putin, who has been involved in the invasion of Ukraine, has been controversial for his remarks sacrificing participation in the war after the mobilization of reserve forces in Russia was recently dropped.
According to APTN on the 26th local time, Patriarch Kirill mentioned the Ukraine war in a sermon the day before in a sermon at a church near Moscow and said, "I pray that this war will end as soon as possible." claimed.
"If someone is faithful to their calling and dies while fulfilling their military service, he has done an act comparable to that of a sacrifice," he said.
The remarks came at a time when Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a partial mobilization order for the reserve forces to be deployed to the battlefield in Ukraine on the 21st, and protests within Russia are spreading.
A procession of people leaving Russia to escape to neighboring countries for fear of forced conscription continues, and protests against the mobilization order are spreading throughout Russia, showing signs of intensification.
Although Patriarch Kirill belonged to the Eastern Orthodox Church, the second largest Christian denomination in the world after the Roman Catholic Church, he became controversial when he made remarks about the war against Ukraine rather than distanced himself from secular affairs.
He supported Putin morally and religiously, defined Ukraine as an 'evil force', and showed an aggressive stance against the Russian military massacre that was revealed in the secondary.
Patriarch Kirill was criticized for this attitude by Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church.
Pope Francis said in an interview with the Italian newspaper in May this year that he would not see Kirill Patriarch as long as the war in Ukraine continues, arguing that he "should not stand as a copy of Putin."
(Photo = EPA, Yonhap News)