Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill delivered a sermon Tuesday claiming Russia “has never attacked anyone” and “doesn’t want to fight,” despite Putin’s troops literally lobbing bombs in Ukraine as he spoke. Speaking in the Cathedral of the Archangel at the Kremlin to mark the Orthodox holiday of Radonitsa, Putin’s top spiritual shill all but called for Moscow’s assault on Ukraine to continue. Asking the saints buried in the cathedral to protect Russia’s “sacred borders,” he said he hoped Russians had enough “wisdom, strength, and honor to defend the sacred borders of the fatherland,” RIA Novosti reported. “It’s amazing when a great and powerful country has not attacked anyone, it has only been defending its borders,” he said, echoing the Kremlin’s claims it is only “defending itself” as it kills unarmed civilians in Ukraine. At least nine more people were reported dead in Ukraine’s Donetsk region as Kirill spoke, including three people who had left their homes simply to get drinking water.
