THE head of the Patriarchate of the independent Ukraine Orthodox
Church (Kiev), Patriarch Filaret, has described the Russian
President, Vladimir Putin, as "the new Cain", and has warned that
Mr Putin faces eternal damnation unless he repents.
The Patriarch made his comments at the National Pedagogical
University last week, during a service to consecrate a memorial
cross to the "Heavenly Hundred" - the 104 people, mostly young, who
were killed during the protests in Independence Square, Kiev,
earlier this year (News, 21
February).
He said that Russians and Ukrainians saw each other as brothers;
and that by his actions, President Putin was committing
fratricide.
Later, in a statement published on the Church's website, he
elaborated on his comments. He said that Mr Putin was doing the
work of the devil: "You separate yourself from the Orthodox Church
and God, doom yourself to an ignominious end of this life, and
eternal damnation in hell in the life of the future world.
"From the holy scriptures we know that there are two great
sins," he said. "Murder and lies are in close unity with each
other, and the inspirator of both is the devil. Therefore, anyone
who indulges in these sins, according to the Saviour, has the devil
as his father."
He said that Mr Putin was "cynically lying" by "saying that his
country is not a party to the conflict in Ukraine, even though he
did everything in order to foment the conflict and maintain
it."
The Patriarch, whose Church is not recognised as part of the
canonical Orthodox Communion, said that President Putin had the
power to "immediately stop the bloodshed and death, but is - for
the sake of his pride - continuing to multiply evil. He calls
himself a brother to the Ukrainian people, but in fact, by his
deeds, he has become the new Cain, shedding the brotherly blood,
and entangling the whole world with lies."
At the service to consecrate the memorial cross, Dr Victor
Andruschenko, Rector of the National Drahomanov Pedagogical
University in Kiev, and President of the Association of Rectors of
Pedagogical Universities in Europe, said: "In God we have victory,
and any evil will disappear because it is temporary."
Dr Andruschenko said that Ukraine would "pass this difficult
historical period . . . with dignity and calm", and that "our
teachers, the future university graduates, [will] bear these values
in society, and will bring up the children to become great patriots
of our country."
