MOSCOW, April 18. /TASS/. Ideas to stage military provocations in Ukraine during Easter are horrific, Vladimir Legoida, the director of Moscow Patriarchate’s department for communications between the Church and society, said on Monday.

"There are reports that the Easter day, when many people gather in churches, could be used for military provocations," he said on Telegram. "One can’t imagine anything more inhuman than to make Bright Sunday, which is marked by Orthodox peoples in Russia and Ukraine and many other countries, a tool for escalating the conflict."

He was referring to data from the Russian Defense Ministry that Russia has proof that Ukraine is preparing provocations for Easter that would cause multiple fatalities among people going to church services. Legoida said the Church is praying so that these provocations don’t happen.

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in response to a request for help by the heads of the Donbass republics. He stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, but aims to demilitarize and de-Nazify the country.