Moscow, January 26, 2017
Photo: https://ria.ru/
In a speech to the Russian State Duma on Thursday, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill spoke of the lamentable state of relations between Russians and Ukrainians, calling those technologies and tools aimed at separating them “the devil’s art.”
Rather than drifting further apart in animosity, the primate called upon both groups to preserve their brotherhood, based on their shared faith and national heroes, writes RIA-Novosti.
“Ukraine is going through a very difficult phase in its history. The confusion within the country has an impact on Russian-Ukrainian relations, largely conditioned, and this is a secret to no one, the actions of outside forces. But the people of Russia and Ukraine, now going through a serious trial, are called against all odds to preserve their brotherly fellowship and unity, to stand strong and not allow geopolitical millstones to grind our centuries-old cultural and spiritual solidarity,” said the patriarch.
In the primate’s words, the use of sophisticated technologies and tools has “sown the seeds of discord and enmity with truly diabolical skill,” that all would be “immersed in an atmosphere of passion and insane hatred.
“We are called not to forget our common national hero—the Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir, whose spiritual children we remain… In the family of the peoples of historical Rus’ there are no unwanted brethren,” concluded Patriarch Kirill.
