Russian Orthodox Church declares war against Ukraine "holy" 

The so-called "World Russian People's Council", headed by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), Patriarch Kirill (Gundyaev) of Moscow, issued an "order" to the Russian people, in which the war in Ukraine is called "holy" and the territories of Ukraine are declared to be "within the zone of exclusive influence of Russia". 

The text of this 'order' was published on the website of the Moscow Patriarchate on Wednesday, March 27.

It states that the "special military operation", as the war in Ukraine is called in Russia, is "a new stage in the national liberation struggle of the Russian people, waged in the lands of southwestern Russia against the criminal Kyiv regime and the collective West", and Russia and its people "fulfil the mission of those who defend the world from the onslaught of globalism and the victory of the West, which has fallen into Satanism".

Further, the ROC calls the "Russian world" a "spiritual, cultural and civilizational phenomenon" that extends "significantly beyond" the state borders of both the Russian Federation and "great historical Russia". 

The document says that Belarusians and Ukrainians are only sub-ethnic groups of Russians, and that the Russian Federation itself should be opened to "millions of foreigners who uphold traditional values".

"In fact, a new stage of the war against Ukraine has been declared, called the 'holy war', with the aim of capturing the entire territory of modern Ukraine and destroying Ukrainians as a nation, as a state, as an ethnic group. This 'order' clearly fits Putin's statement that 'the war with Ukraine is becoming the main task for all Russians'," said Ukrainian war correspondent Andriy Tsaplienko.