Lithuania calls on the EU to impose sanctions against Patriarch Kirill

Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said this in an interview with a local newspaper 15min, NV reports.

"This proposal was put forward. But so far, consultations are only continuing to reach a consensus, so there is no final answer whether sanctions will be imposed," he said.

According to the Foreign Minister, Patriarch Kirill is not engaged in pastoral care but "the corruption of souls, supporting the war and all the horrors that are taking place in Ukraine."

Lithuania also participates in consultations on the separation of the Lithuanian Orthodox Church from the Moscow Patriarchy, but this, according to Landsbergis, is a matter of community self-determination. Unlike Patriarch Kirill, the Lithuanian Orthodox Church, which has about 100 thousand believers, condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

As RISU has reported, priests of the UOC-MP appealed to Patriarch Bartholomew with a request to help them break off relations with the Russian Orthodox Church and Kirill.

More than 400 priests of the UOC MP supported the church tribunal over Patriarch Kirill. In early March, they recorded an appeal accusing him of condoning the war unleashed by Putin. They called on metropolitan Onufriy to convene a local council of the UOC-MP in order to withdraw from the Moscow Patriarchate.

У Ватикані скасували заплановану на червень в Єрусалимі зустріч Папи Франциска з Патріархом Кирилом.