Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill said that the Russian soldiers who are fighting in Ukraine show “amazing examples of courage and self-sacrifice”, because of “an inner moral feeling brought up by the Orthodox faith.” He said this in a sermon at the Spassky Cathedral in Penza, TASS writes.

“We, who have gone through all those persecutions, through all that godless ideology, we have risen as a people and are building churches, and a feeling of love for the fatherland is growing in us, and we see how our young guys are now defending Russia on the battlefield. Our priests, who take care of our soldiers, tell me about amazing examples of courage, self-sacrifice and even the ability to lay down one’s life for one’s friend,” the head of the Russian Orthodox Church said.

Reflecting on “where this comes from,” he said that it was “not from a high salary, and not from the encouragement of superiors, and not from promotion,” but “from an inner moral feeling brought up by the Orthodox faith.”