Commenting on the plans announced at the meeting between Patriarch of Constantinople and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken plans to “work with the Orthodox community around the world on issues of common interest,” the head of the DECR of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, said that after Patriarch Bartholomew’s visit to the United States, an increase in persecution of canonical Orthodoxy cannot be ruled out. in Ukraine.

“Neither the US President is the leader of the whole world, nor the Patriarch of Constantinople is the head of all Orthodox Christians. No one authorized either one or the other to work “with the Orthodox community around the world.” On the example of Ukraine, we see what such interaction leads to – a split in Orthodoxy and the oppression of believers, ”said the hierarch.

“The United States does not hide the fact of its participation in granting the so-called autocephaly to Ukrainian schismatics. Two years after those events, we see that attempts to split the Ukrainian Orthodox Church have not been successful. The canonical Church, despite the oppression, has become even more united. In this regard, one cannot exclude an increase in the persecution of canonical Orthodoxy in Ukraine after the visit of Patriarch Bartholomew to the United States, ”he added.