Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew said today from Vilnius, Lithuania that the Russian Orthodox Church bears a share of responsibility for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, at the same time declaring himself ready to help in the post-war "spiritual renaissance" of Russia.
Bartholomew's comments are a rebuke to Russian Patriarch Kirill, whose full blessing for Moscow's invasion of Ukraine has caused friction in the Orthodox Church worldwide.
Bartholomew, who the 2019 angered Moscow by granting the Autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, stated that the Russian authorities are using the Church as an "instrument for their strategic goals".
"Church and state leadership in Russia collaborated in the crime of aggression and share responsibility for the crimes committed as a result of the aggression, such as the shocking kidnapping of Ukrainians", he said at a conference held in the Lithuanian parliament.
Last week, International Criminal Court issues arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of the war crime of illegally evicting hundreds of Ukrainians. Russia says the children were taken from Ukraine for their own safety. He denies committing rights violations in Ukraine.
"Our interfaith dialogue must focus on ways to resist and neutralize the ability of the leadership of the Moscow Patriarchate to undermine unity and theologically legitimize criminal behavior.", Bartholomew pointed out.
The Russian Orthodox Church had no immediate comment.
The Ecumenical Patriarch is considered "first among equals" in the Orthodox Church, which counts 260 millions of believers worldwide, about 100 millions of them in Russia.
"The mother church of Istanbul is ready to help her children in Ukraine and Russia once again, as he has done many times in the past," he said.
"It is our common Christian duty to use the forces of dialogue to bring our Russian brothers and sisters back to our community of shared values", completed, stressing the need for "spiritual rebirth" in both Russia and Ukraine.
At the end of January, the Ecumenical Patriarch had declared that there was no relationship, direct or indirect, the granting of the Autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has to do with geopolitical facts and with Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
As he stated then, the war is artificially connected by the Church of Russia with the Ukrainian Autocephaly to cover its responsibilities and its great ambitions. "It was she who deepened the gap between Ukrainians and Russians and not the Ukrainian Autocephaly that was given to the trying Ukrainian people. Russia's reaction stems from an attempt to impose on the Ukrainian people and from the absence of a healthy ecclesiastical conscience".
indeed, pointed out then that the Church of Constantinople gave a helping hand to Russia to solve the Ukrainian, but the efforts were fruitless, at the fault of the Russian side, which, however, he does not admit it.