Bondarenko says she doesn’t want her church to have anything to do with Russian Orthodox leader Kirill any longer. “Please, my God, Patriarch Kirill has blessed this war, he is not the one who has a moral right to tell us that ‘God is love,’” she said. “He has blessed Putin’s friend, commander Zolotov and the Russian soldiers to kill us, Orthodox believers of Ukraine,” Bondarenko added with tears welling in her eyes.

She was referring to a recent ceremony in which the Russian Patriarch prayed with President Vladimir Putin’s ex-bodyguard, Victor Zolotov, who is now the commander of the Russian National Guard fighting in Ukraine. “Let it inspire the young warriors who take the oath, embark on the path of defending the Fatherland,” the patriarch said in the Moscow ceremony last month. Zolotov, in turn, complained to the Russian Orthodox Church leader that “not everything is going as fast as we would like.” The commander then expressed his wishes that the prayer would protect the Russian Army “and accelerate our victory.”…

More than 400 Ukrainian priests have spoken out against Patriarch Kirill for his support of the war, demanding he be put on trial by the Council of Eastern Patriarchs. Adding to that, scores of Orthodox parishes in Ukraine that have long been loyal to the Moscow Patriarchate have begun to withdraw from the UOC-MP, changing their jurisdictional affiliations to join the independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church instead.