Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia said this weekend that Russia is self-sufficient and has no wish to “invade or occupy anyone.”
Following a liturgy celebrated on the eve of Victory Day at the main church of the Russian Armed Forces in Kubinka, Kirill defended Russia’s “special operation in Ukraine” against Western criticism.
“Russia does not wish to harm anyone, does not want to invade and occupy anyone, does not want to pump resources from anyone, as most rich and powerful countries of the world do, economically occupying weak and helpless countries,” Kirill said.
“We do not need all this, we are self-sufficient,” he added.
All Russia needs is true freedom and independence from hostile powers that conspire against it, he suggested.
“We should consolidate all our forces — both spiritual and material — so that no one would dare to encroach on the sacred frontiers of our Fatherland,” he said. “And my words are not what our opponents would like to describe as yet another militaristic speech by the patriarch, all of this is nonsense.”
In this Friday, February 12, 2016 file photo, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill, left, and Pope Francis talk during their meeting at the Jose Marti airport in Havana, Cuba. (Adalberto Roque/Pool photo via AP)
Addressing the servicemen who attended the liturgy, Kirill encouraged them to find inspiration in the example of the “brilliant galaxy of Soviet marshals who ensured the victory over Nazi Germany.”
Patriarch Kirill has been roundly criticized for his wholehearted support for Russian aggression against Ukraine.
Most recently, Pope Francis warned that the patriarch must not become “Putin’s altar boy.”
The pontiff said he had recently spoken to Kirill via Zoom for 40 minutes, but that the patriarch spent the first twenty minutes of the meeting reciting all Russia’s justifications for the war on Ukraine.
“I listened and told him: I don’t understand anything about this. Brother, we are not state clerics, we cannot use the language of politics, but that of Jesus,” the pope said. “We are shepherds of the same holy people of God. For this we must seek ways of peace, to put an end to the firing of weapons.”
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