The chief ecumenical official of the Russian Orthodox Church has told a Russian television audience that relations with the Holy See are “practically frozen.”

Metropolitan Anthony Sevryuk said that the prospects for a “summit meeting” between Moscow’s Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis are bleak. He attributed the cooling in relations to statements “not only from the lips of the Pope, but also the great part of his aides,” condemning the Russian war in Ukraine and the support that the Moscow patriarchate has shown for that offensive.