OREANDA-NEWS  Kiev's persecution of canonical Orthodoxy may cause the largest intra-confessional conflict in the modern history of Europe, Gennady Askaldovich, special representative of the Russian Foreign Minister for cooperation in ensuring the right to freedom of religion, Ambassador-at-large of the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

"At a recent meeting of the UN Security Council, attention was drawn to the threatening consequences of Kiev's state policy of persecution of canonical Orthodoxy, which could lead to the largest intra-confessional conflict in the modern history of Europe," the diplomat said. Earlier, Russia's Permanent representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzia said at a meeting of the UN Security Council that Russia has information about the preparation of a number of initiatives in Ukraine with a view to the complete elimination of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC).

Criminal cases against bishops and priests of the canonical UOC are initiated for far-fetched reasons, Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk (Sevryuk), chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, said at the same meeting.