The head of the Department for external church relations of the Russian Orthodox Church, metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) commented on the statements of the Patriarch of Constantinople that he was going to visit Ukraine – “his flock is there.” This was discussed during the program “Church and World”, the website of the Moscow Patriarchate reports.

“It is not clear what kind of flock in Ukraine the Patriarch of Constantinople has. The majority of Ukrainian Orthodox believers belongs to the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is not in communion with him now. And some of the people belong to the schismatic structure, to which he gave the so-called autocephaly. If this is an “autocephalous church” from the point of view of the Patriarch of Constantinople, then what kind of his flock is there?”, – said metropolitan Hilarion.

The deeds that the Patriarch of Constantinople performed in Ukraine did not bring the Ukrainian people either pacification or unity. “He promised that by his decisions he would overcome the split, but this did not happen, because the split cannot be overcome by legalizing the split,” the hierarch stated.

The opposite thing happened: the schismatics raised their heads, they began to attack the temples of the canonical Church, by force to expel priests and parishioners from the temples. A number of communities that have lost their churches due to the raiding of schismatics are forced to pray in the street in winter frosts.

“I think that if Patriarch Bartholomew comes to Ukraine, it would be good for him to go to such places and see what his actions have led to,” the metropolitan emphasized.