Russian Foreign Ministry: religious persecution in Ukraine hinders peaceful settlement

According to representatives of the Russian Foreign Ministry during a meeting of the UN Security Council on the persecution of Orthodoxy, religious persecution in Ukraine and other provocative actions are increasingly delaying the possibility of a peaceful settlement of the conflict.

Vasily Nebenzya, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN, noted that Russia has evidence that Ukraine is preparing several initiatives that will result in the complete liquidation of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

So, the chairman of the department for external church relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk (Sevryuk), said that bishops and clergy of the canonical UOC are being filed for far-fetched reasons.

It should be noted that after the speech of Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk on the website of the Department for External Church Relations of the UOC, after that there was an appeal to the Russian authorities not to speak on her behalf at international platforms. Also, the Ukrainian Church appealed to the authorities of Ukraine. The UOC asked to conduct a “balanced religious policy” in the country in order not to give reasons to use the religious policy of the state in the interests of others.