ROC Primate and Vatican Secretary of State are to discuss the situation in Ukraine

The Ukrainian issue will be one of the topics of discussion during the forthcoming visit of Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Holy See, to Moscow on August 20-24, Interfax reports.

"The issue of Ukraine remains unchanged from the agenda, which remains problematic in the relations between the two Churches because of the periodic destructive actions of Greek Catholics in Ukraine, and also has a humanitarian dimension," Secretary of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations for Inter-Christian Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church, Hieromonk Stefan (Igumnov), said on August 15.

He stressed that "the Russian Orthodox Church values the position of the Vatican on this issue, which does not allow the use of the Holy See for speculation in order to further escalate the Ukrainian crisis and to bring the conflict in the country to a purely religious plane."

The priest noted that the visit "will mark the next stage of interaction, which is burgeoning in a variety of areas."

Asked about the possibility of discussing the prospects for the visit of Pope Francis to Moscow, the priest recalled the recent interview of the state secretary of the Vatican, in which he stated that he did not intend to talk about this with the patriarch during his visit.

Earlier Pietro Parolin said that the subject matter of Ukraine, Syria and the Middle East, as well as conflicts in other parts of the world, cause concern and close attention on the part of the Holy See.

In June, during his visit to Ukraine, Secretary of State of Vatican Cardinal Pietro Parolin told about the risk of nationalism and the need to have fraternal and basic humanity on the way to Eurointegration of Ukraine.