Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko today condemned the influential Russian Orthodox Church, which counts millions of believers, as a threat to national security.
The influence of the Russian Orthodox Church is a "direct threat to the national security of Ukraine", Poroshenko said during ceremonies marking 1,030 years since conversion to Christianity, adding that "this obliges us to act".
The Orthodox Church in Ukraine is split between the largest branch whose clerics pledge loyalty to the head of the Russian church, Patriarch Kirill, and one that is overseen by Kiev-based Patriarch Filaret.
Poroshenko joined a procession of tens of thousands of believers organised by the Kiev church after the Moscow-based church held a similar procession yesterday.
"I believe it is absolutely necessary to cut off all the tentacles with which the aggressor country operates inside the body of our state," Poroshenko said of the Russian church.
He complained that it is "separated from the state only on paper" while in reality it "fully and unconditionally supports the Kremlin's revanchist imperial policy."
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