Patriarch Bartholomew: The whole world is against Russia

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew mourns the Russian War against Ukraine. In an interview with The Turkish television network CNN Turk, he says that the world is entering a new period of the Cold War.

“The distance between Russia and the Western world is getting wider”, Orthodox Times cites the Patriarch who speaks about the Russian attack on Ukraine. “The whole world is against Russia.” Bartholomew is the first among the Orthodox Patriarchs, although he does not have the same position as the Catholic Pope.

Patriarch Bartholomew admonishes Putin by stressing that the “one who thinks and acts rationally, does not want this situation, this new period of Cold War.”

Furthermore, the Patriarch said during the interview that his relationship with the Ukrainian President Zelensky is “very good.” Recently, he had a phone call with Zelensky. The Ukrainian president asked him “to pray even more and more intensely for peace to prevail” and thanked him for the support, Bartholomew said. He furthermore asserted that Zelensky has visited him twice and invited him to Ukraine. “I went there last August, and it was very nice.”

Earlier, Bartholomew granted the Orthodox Church of Ukraine independence (the so-called autocephaly). That gave a lot of turmoil with the Moscow Patriarchate, but he still stands behind his decision to do so. “We gave an independent country an independent church. Under the current circumstances, we see that our Patriarchate acted very early and did a good job. We upset our Russian brothers, but that had to happen. Ukraine deserved it.”

The Patriarch notices that the Ukrainian Church under the Patriarchate of Moscow moves away from its Russian heritage. “We are not very happy about this because it is the result of the war”, he commented during the interview. “We would like the Russian Church not to show such hostility towards me and to accept our canonical decision.”

Bartholomew concluded that as a religious institution, the Ecumenical Patriarchate has always favoured peace and unity and continues to do so.