Spokesman for Patriarch Kirill hopes that Ukrainians do not defend themselves against aggression and occupation
![Spokesman for Patriarch Kirill hopes that Ukrainians do not defend themselves against aggression and occupation - 1 Spokesman for Patriarch Kirill hopes that Ukrainians do not defend themselves against aggression and occupation - фото 1](/uploads/770x433_DIR/media_news/2020/05/5ed17ab922c1e860163451.jpeg)
On Saturday Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, the head of the of Synodal Department for the Cooperation of the Church and Society, made a statement on Russia’s deployment of troops in Ukraine.
“The Russian peacemaking mission in Ukraine should guarantee its citizens the right to self-determination and close ties with other peoples of historical Rus,” he said, Interfax reported.
“Already in 1995 the World Russian National Council declared that the Russian people, a divided nation on its historical territory, have the right for to be unified in one state body, a right universally recognized as a norm of international politics.”
“At the same time we will hope that the mission of Russian soldiers to protect the freedom and self-determination of those people and their very life will not encounter fierce opposition that would lead to large-scale conflict. Nobody wants bloodshed and the deepening of those divisions that already exist among Orthodox people on the territory of historical Rus,” stressed the priest.