Russian Patriarch Kirill has released a new book defending the idea of war as a tool for achieving political objectives, shortly after being removed from the European Union’s sanctions list following a request by the Bulgarian government.
The book, titled “War. Beyond the Visible Causes and Consequences,” was published by the publishing house of the Moscow Patriarchate, according to Russian opposition media outlet Meduza.
The publication presents war as a subject with a deeper spiritual dimension, focusing on themes such as sacrifice, heroism, patriotism and victory. According to the description of the book, Kirill examines the issue through a “spiritual prism” and presents war as a “metaphysical struggle.”
In the book, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church argues that war can have a redemptive meaning and describes Russians as having an “earthly calling” to be “warriors of the Lord.” He also writes that the Russian people have “a great responsibility not to abandon their historical duty to be victorious.”
Kirill has repeatedly expressed support for Russia’s war against Ukraine in public statements. He has described the conflict as “a continuation of that unfinished war in which we won the Great Victory in the spring of 1945, but we failed to completely eradicate the evil of Nazism.”
