On March 2, Father Ioan Sauca, the Romanian Orthodox priest who is acting general secretary of the World Council of Churches, asked Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, to “raise up your voice so that the war can be stopped.”

“The origins of the confrontation lie in the relationships between the West and Russia,” Patriarch Kirill said in his March 10 response. “By the 1990s Russia had been promised that its security and dignity would be respected. However, as time went by, the forces overtly considering Russia to be their enemy came close to its borders.”

“Year after year, month after month, the NATO member states have been building up their military presence, disregarding Russia’s concerns that these weapons may one day be used against it,” he continued. “They spared no effort, no funds to flood Ukraine with weapons and warfare instructors. Yet, the most terrible thing is not the weapons, but the attempt to ‘re-educate,’ to mentally remake Ukrainians and Russians living in Ukraine into enemies of Russia.”

“This tragic conflict has become a part of the large-scale geopolitical strategy aimed, first and foremost, at weakening Russia,” Patriarch Kirill added. “Russophobia is spreading across the Western world at an unprecedented pace. I pray unceasingly that by His power the Lord help establish the lasting and justice-based peace as soon as possible.”