The Moscow Patriarchate set itself the task to "defend sacred borders of ROC"

This is reported by the official website of the Russian Orthodox Church. In Moscow, they believe that it was not them, but Constantinople, who split world Orthodoxy.

The head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate said: "what we faced in 2018 split the entire Orthodox Church. And this schism is being deepened by the actions of the patriarch of Constantinople."

This is a great tragedy, but, as I have repeatedly said, this is a schism that is developing outside of our church, " the DECR chairman stressed. "We are saddened by this."

"Our episcopate in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, and other countries that are part of our canonical space and beyond is like-minded and solidary," Metropolitan Hilarion said.

He said that the Russian Orthodox Church "has not lost a single part of its canonical territory; it has not lost any churches, except for those that were forcibly seized by Ukrainian schismatics, but a large number of new churches have already been built there."

He also said that the most important tasks of the Department of External Church Relations headed by him are "to protect the sacred borders of the Russian Orthodox Church and prevent encroachments on its heritage, which has been formed for centuries."