It is hoped that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko will manage to propose such a plan to settle the situation in the country, which will lead to complete and long-standing peace, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
“We are in contact with Ukrainian President Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko and I hope he will manage to propose the entire Ukrainian nation and all people, wherever they live, such a variant of situation development, which would lead to final, complete and long-standing peace at this land,” Putin said on Friday at a meeting with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all Russia, hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church and representatives of local Orthodox churches, who came for the celebration of the 700th anniversary of Saint Sergius of Radonezh.
The problems at the international arena and spiritual and moral issues can be overcome only following unity and love principles, Putin said.
A similar meeting was held last time at the 1025th anniversary of Christianization of Rus, he said.
“St. Sergius of Radonezh was gatherer of Russian lands and made an invaluable contribution to the enhancement of the Orthodox faith,” the president said.
“We live in difficult time, unfortunately, very many issues exist at the international arena and in spiritual and moral spheres, which are to be overcome, but we can do this only following the ideas, which St. Sergius of Radonezh, who called for unity and love, formed in his time. Only love and unity can save us,” Putin said.
“The world becomes more and more difficult and the Orthodoxy has its own moral and ethic values, which are professed by representatives of other confessions and religions. I have a feeling that despite the fact that many things separate us in beliefs, the spiritual and moral sphere has many aspects in common,” the president said.
“And resting on the very best of what unites us, we can move forward and feel confident. Because it can be said with every ground that majority of citizens of the countries, where the Orthodoxy is considering a leading religions, are behind us and people share our viewpoint in many other states as well,” Putin said.
