Ukraine Sanctions 22 Related With Russian Orthodox Church

Kyiv:

Ukraine has imposed sanctions on 22 Russians related to the Russian Orthodox Church for what President Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned was their assist of genocide beneath the cloak of faith.

In line with a decree issued by the Nationwide Safety and Protection Council of Ukraine, the record contains Mikhail Gundayev, who represents the Russian Orthodox Church within the World Council of Church buildings and different worldwide organizations in Geneva.

Russian state media reported that Gundayev is a nephew of the chief of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill. Ukraine sanctioned Kirill final yr.

The sanctions are the newest in a collection of steps Ukraine has taken in opposition to the Russian Orthodox Church, which has backed President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine that’s now coming into its twelfth month.

“Sanctions have been imposed in opposition to 22 Russian residents who, beneath the guise of spirituality, assist terror and genocidal coverage,” Zelensky mentioned in his nightly handle late on Monday.

He mentioned the punitive measures mentioned that they’d strengthen the nation’s “non secular independence”.

A majority of Ukrainians are Orthodox Christians and competitors has been fierce between the department of the church traditionally linked to Moscow and an impartial church proclaimed after independence from Soviet rule in 1991.

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