You're reading: Agence France-Presse: Thousands march in support of Ukraine’s Russia-backed church

Agence France-Presse: Thousands march in support of Ukraine’s Russia-backed church

Published July 28, 2021. Updated July 28 at 3:22 am

Priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) Metropolitan Onufriy perform a ceremony in front of the Dnipro River as part of the celebration of the 1033rd anniversary of the Baptism of the Kyivan Rus on July 27, 2021.

Photo by Oleg Petrasiuk

Ukraine’s Russia-backed Orthodox Church gathered thousands of its followers on Tuesday in a show of force ahead of a historic visit by its rival and leader of the Orthodox world, Patriarch Bartholomew I. More than 20,000 believers marched through Kyiv despite coronavirus restrictions to mark the 1033th anniversary of the Christianisation of Rus, a term referring to eastern Slavic lands in the Middle Ages.