Metropolitan Onuphry, a native of Western Ukraine, added: "I call you, above all, to intensified penitential prayer for Ukraine, for our army, and our people, and I entreat you to lay aside mutual strife and misunderstandings and unite in love for God and our motherland." Such a war has no justification either from God or from people." "The Ukrainian and Russian peoples came out of the Dnieper Baptismal font, and the war between these peoples is a repetition of the sin of Cain, who killed his own brother out of envy. "Defending the sovereignty and integrity of Ukraine, we appeal to the President of Russia and ask him to immediately stop the fratricidal war," said Metropolitan Onuphry, primate of Kiev and all Ukraine. The leader of Ukraine's oldest Orthodox body – one with centuries of ecclesiastical ties to Moscow – condemned the invasion in a statement addressed directly to Vladimir Putin. However, it's significant that leaders of many Orthodox churches with roots in Russian Orthodoxy have also condemned the invasion and urged a ceasefire. Metropolitan Epiphanius I of the independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church, launched in 2018 by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Istanbul, has said the "spirit of the Antichrist operates in the leader of Russia." Orthodox leaders with ties to the European Union and highly European Western Ukraine have issued fierce statements after the Russian invasion.
In Slavic Orthodox history, all roads lead to Kiev, now called Kyiv in the West. As Orthodox Christians, we condemn violence and aggression." The OCA's Metropolitan Tikhon, leader of a church that began with Russian missionary work in 1794, has urged that "hostilities be ceased immediately and that President Putin put an end to the military operations. Lead everyone along the path of reconciliation and peace." Remove from their midst all hostility, confusion and hatred. With Great Lent approaching, Archbishop Alexander Golitzin of the Diocese of Dallas and the South instructed parishes (including my own in East Tennessee) to add prayers for Ukraine in every Divine Liturgy: "Again, we ask Thy great mercy on our brothers and sisters who are presently involved in conflict. The faithful know many by heart, including the ancient Trisagion hymn – "Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us" – in a haunting setting that for centuries has simply been called "Kievan Chant." During Sunday rites, worshippers in the Orthodox Church in America are led through a tour of the faith's music, with hymns from Russia, Romania, Georgia, Bulgaria and beyond.
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