The visit by Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople to Ukraine is a sinful and inexplicable act that undermines the unity of Orthodoxy, said Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia during a sermon at the feast of the Assumption of the Most Holy Theotokos in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior on Saturday, TASS reports.

“May the Pure Mother of God help to preserve the unity of the Orthodox Churches, today torn apart by the forces of evil. And we know what is happening today in universal Orthodoxy, how these forces, using the most difficult situation in Ukraine, are trying to break the unity of the Orthodox Church, and are succeeding in something.

And an example of this is the sinful and inexplicable visit of the Patriarch of Constantinople to Kyiv and his concelebration with schismatics. And this event once again testifies the hardest path along which the Church of Christ is going,” said the Patriarch.

As previously reported, not a single Primate of the Churches supporting the OCU came to Kyiv with the head of the Phanar.