MOSCOW, March 10. /TASS/. The crisis in Ukraine will end in peace sooner or later but the conflicting sides should overcome personal animosity, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia said in an exclusive interview with TASS on Tuesday.
"Proceeding from prospects of reconciliation, we are calling on the conflicting sides in Ukraine to show prudence. The seeds of antagonism will grow with poisoned fruit in the future," the patriarch said.
"The situation in Ukraine, deaths of people have caused my sorrow for many months. This does not let me sleep — both literally and figuratively," he said.
The patriarch said that "churches of the Russian Orthodox Church are violently seized in Ukraine, unfair fight is being waged against us, but even this convinces people that their position is right."
"It was like that in Soviet time too, when churches were being closed and faith was getting stronger," he added. "Such methods will not achieve anything. This is a huge mistake on the part of those who declared war on the Church in Ukraine."
"Our Church in Ukraine will remain, there is no doubt of that. There is no other way to overcome the current split than to take the path of canonical unification," he said.
According to the patriarch, the Church is doing everything possible to prevent the conflict from bringing new deaths.
"We do not exaggerate our capabilities, but we don’t belittle them either," he concluded.