Moscow Says Has Enough Facts Proving US Inspired Creation Of Ukraine Autocephalous Church

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st April, 2019) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow has enough facts proving that the establishment of the new autocephalous Orthodox church in Ukraine was supported and inspired by Washington.

"As the Russian Orthodox Church has been holding leading positions in the global Orthodoxy, a reckless scheme with granting the autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox church, ... undertaken by Istanbul Patriarch Bartholomew, was � we already have enough facts to say it � supported and inspired by Washington," Lavrov told the Russian Zvezda tv channel in an interview.

The minister also noted that a new direction that envisaged a "frontal attack" on the Orthodoxy had recently emerged in the US policy toward Russia.

In mid-December 2018, the unification council was held in Kiev at Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's initiative, during which the new church � uniting the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, two previously non-canonical structures � was established.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate � the only canonical Orthodox jurisdiction in Ukraine back then � has officially refused to take part in the council. It has defrocked its two bishops who attended the council.

On January 6, Constantinople Patriarch Bartholomew handed over the tomos of autocephaly to the head of the new church.

The Russian Orthodox Church has refused to recognize the results of the council and Constantinople's decision to grant autocephaly to the new Ukrainian church institution.