MOSCOW, May 28. /ITAR-TASS/. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has said he will make his first pastoral visit to Kosovo and Metohija, and to Serbia.

“I’m planning to visit the Serbian Orthodox Church in the near future,” Patriarch Kirill said at the Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday.

“We are concerned over the state of shrines of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Orthodox Serbs of Kosovo and Metohija. We pray for our brothers and raise voices for protecting them,” the patriarch said.

“Common culture, going back to the writings of Saints Cyril and Methodius Equal-to-the-Apostles, unites the nations guided by the Russian Orthodox Church and the Local Orthodox Churches in the Balkans,” he said.

This year Europe marks the 100th anniversary of World War I, the patriarch noted.

“This is an occasion to call to mind once again the links of brotherhood between the Slavs and Russia’s sacrifice for the sake of protection and dignity of the Serbian state,” he noted.

The consecration of the unique Russian Necropolis at the New Cemetery in Belgrade will be an important event, Patriarch Kirill added.