MOSCOW, April 10. /TASS/. A draft statement of the Russian State Duma (lower parliament house) on the Kiev regime’s repressive policy against the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) has been submitted to the State Duma, Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the Duma international committee and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), said on Monday.

The statement says that the Russian lawmakers "share the indignation and utter resentment millions of Christians in the entire world are feeling amid to the numerous reports revealing the Ukrainian post-Maidan authorities’ policy aimed at the complete extermination of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church."

The lawmakers express their support for the "Ukrainian brothers and sisters who are witnessing an attempt to destroy the canonical Orthodox Church in Ukraine and admire the resilience and courage of people confronting the ideological successors of the Nazi blasphemers." The Russian lawmakers call on the international community, lawmakers, politicians, diplomats and human rights organizations to "give a principled legal assessment to the criminal actions of the [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky regime and demand the Kiev authorities immediately stop arbitrariness in respect of Orthodox holy sites in Ukraine, release the detained and arrested UOC clerics and parishioners, and strictly comply with their international legal commitments," the statement reads.