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ISTANBUL 

Russia will not abandon the Orthodox people in Ukraine and will work to ensure their legal rights are respected, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.

“I would like to assure everyone present that Russia will not leave the Orthodox people of Ukraine in trouble and will ensure that their legal rights are respected and that canonical Orthodoxy regains its central place in the spiritual life of the people on Ukrainian lands,” Lavrov said at an Easter-themed reception in Moscow.

Lavrov said guaranteeing that these objectives will be fulfilled is Russia’s position on a fair settlement in the Ukraine conflict, which he claimed was “created by the West.”

Expressing that this position was reaffirmed by President Vladimir Putin in his over two-hour-long phone call with US President Donald Trump on Monday, Lavrov said the Russian state, as well as the Foreign Ministry, will continue to combine their efforts in the international arena with the Russian Orthodox Church.

Lavrov accused the West of ignoring “many crimes” in various parts of the world, claiming that it does so “easily” if “these crimes do not prevent the West from advancing its global agenda in order to cling to its elusive dominance and continue to try to live at the expense of others.”

He accused Ukraine of “exterminating everything that is in any way connected to Russia” since 2014, adding that Kyiv “does not leave canonical Orthodoxy alone either.”

“A tragic and at the same time clear example of its misanthropic nature is the long-term persecution of the country's largest confession, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (of the Moscow Patriarchate), which the authorities entrenched in Kyiv have brought to the brink of legal liquidation,” he added.

Ukrainian authorities did not immediately comment on Lavrov’s remarks.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC) split from Moscow in May 2022 following Russian Patriarch Kirill's blessing for the war in Ukraine, which began in February that same year, but is still labeled “pro-Russian” by Kyiv, as well as the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

In August 2024, Ukraine signed a ban on religious organizations tied to Russia into law, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy calling the legislation “a law on our spiritual independence.”

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the law’s adoption signaled the "destruction of true Orthodoxy at the root," accusing Ukraine of trying to create a "false church" to replace the UOC.