The Russian Orthodox Church called the war in Ukraine "sacred" and expressed territorial claims

Russian popes declare the "trinity" of the Russian people and that Belarusians and Ukrainians should be recognized only as sub-ethnic groups of Russians.

The so-called "World Russian People's Council", which is headed by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), Patriarch Kirill of Moscow (Gundyaev), issued an "order" in which the war in Ukraine is called "sacred" and the territories of Ukraine are declared as "shall enter 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 is indicated that the document was approved during the conclave in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow with the participation of the hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church and public figures associated with this church.

They said that the "special military operation", as the Russian Federation calls the war in Ukraine, is "a new stage of the national liberation struggle of the Russian people, which is being waged on the lands of South-Western Russia against the criminal Kyiv regime and the collective West", and Russia and its people "perform the mission of the one who protects the world from the onslaught of globalism and the victory of the West, which has fallen into Satanism."

Further, the ROC calls the "Russian measure" a "spiritual and cultural-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 the Russian Federation itself should be opened to the entry of "millions of foreigners who uphold traditional values."