The Russian Orthodox Church preserves the unity of East Slavic Orthodoxy, relying on spiritual and cultural ties, and not on political processes, due to which, for example, there was a division of believers in Ukraine, Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, Deputy Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, told RIA Novosti.

“The division between the Orthodox Christians of Ukraine, between them and their Russian co-religionists, was undoubtedly carried out according to a project actively supported by political circles and special services of a number of Western states.

Nevertheless, in the current conditions, the church continues its peacemaking and unifying ministry, preserves the unity of our common Eastern Slavic Orthodox civilization, relying not on political instruments, but on a much more powerful and enduring factor of spiritual and cultural kinship, “the clergyman said.