Kirill calls Zelensky, Budanov and Poroshenko «satanists»
Patriarch of Moscow cyril, who heads the Russian Orthodox Church, publicly called the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky, head of the OP Kirill Budanov and the fifth president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko «Satanists».
According to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, it is possible to «defeat» Ukrainian leaders only by «prayer and fasting». The statements were made as part of a sermon dedicated to the war against Ukraine.
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Kirill once again used religious vocabulary to demonise the Ukrainian leadership, presenting the war as a «spiritual confrontation». Such statements have been regularly made by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church since 2022 and accompany Russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine.
The patriarch did not provide any evidence or explanation for his words.
Context.
The Russian Orthodox Church under Kirill's leadership has effectively become part of the state propaganda machine of the Russian Federation, openly supporting the war and justifying violence with religious arguments.
Statements about the «satanism» of the Ukrainian authorities are part of an information campaign aimed at dehumanising Ukraine and mobilising Russian society around the war.
Ukrainian and international human rights activists have repeatedly called such statements an example of religious extremism and hate speech.
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