Igor Girkin https://twitter.com/girkingirkin the most publicly prominent among the first wave of Russian commanders of the Kremlin campaign in eastern Ukraine during spring and summer 2014.
“My personal bodyguard was exclusively made up of monks from the Sviatohirsk Cave Monastery, right down to the last man,” said Girkin during his recent interview. “There were not so many of them. Nevertheless, they were there.” The Sviatohirsk Cave Monastery, also known as the Sviatohirsk Lavra, is a monastery complex in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine loyal to the Russian Orthodox Church.
Girkin’s comments will further strengthen the widespread belief within Ukrainian society that the Russian Orthodox Church is intimately involved in the Kremlin attack on Ukraine. Priests of the Russian Orthodox Church stand accused of everything from harboring weapons and blessing fighters to serving in the ranks of the Kremlin’s military formations.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian Orthodox priests loyal to the Moscow Patriarchate have refused to provide burial services for Ukrainian soldiers killed in the conflict and have shunned public memorials honoring the fallen. This has dramatically undermined the spiritual authority of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, leading to the defection of entire congregations from the Moscow to the Kyiv Patriarchate and forcing millions of Ukrainians to question how they can continue worshipping in a church that aligns itself with their nation’s enemies. By highlighting the dangers posed by continued Russian Orthodox influence in the country, it has also made the creation of an international recognized independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church a matter of national security.
The restricting of the ability of Russian Orthodox to visit Holy Sites abroad or have relics come from there to Russia has had a negative effect:
Many Russian Orthodox are furious with the Moscow Patriarchate about that and are now petitioning Kirill to annual his decision about breaking relations with the Universal Patriarchate in Constantinople.
At the very least, this shows that Patriarch Kirill’s position is not supported by everyone in the ROC; and potentially, this may lead to a situation in which some Russian Orthodox may decide that seeking autocephaly is preferable to remaining under Moscow, a drive the Universal Patriarch under certain circumstances would welcome and even support.
http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2018/10/could-there-be-parade-of-autocephalies.html