VIENNA, May 6. /TASS/. Hungary will not support the move to place Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia on the EU sanctions list, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in a live broadcast by the Kossuth radio.

"We will not allow the inclusion of church leaders in the sanctions list," he said, adding that he had received a letter from his country’s Orthodox community with a request to fight against such restrictions.

The freedom of faith is a "sacred issue" for Hungary, Orban said.

Agence France-Presse reported on Wednesday that the European Union had put forward a proposal to slap restrictions on Patriarch Kirill as part of its sixth package of sanctions against Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to launch a special military operation. The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, but aimed to demilitarize and denazify the country. The West responded with wide-ranging sanctions against Russia.