Brussels, 22/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - Patriarch Philaret, the primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate, called on the EU on Wednesday 22 April to develop a peacekeeping mission in Eastern Ukraine so as to enable the border between Ukraine and Russia to be closed and thus prevent the fighters and weapons coming from Russia.
“The EU has done many things to ensure that the aggressor advances no further, but it has not done enough. It has not done everything it could do”, he said at a European Parliament press conference. Although he called for this mission, the patriarch recognised that it was not a simple issue. However, in his view, it is necessary “for peace and to avoid a third world war”.
The patriarch said he believed Russia's President Vladimir Putin wanted to go further than Eastern Ukraine, and that he wanted to recover Ukraine and the former countries of the Soviet bloc or satellite countries in order to become the second superpower in the world after the USA. “The war in Eastern Ukraine can lead to the third world war”, he said. “The EU must be watchful and not allow a third world war”, he added, saying he believed that the current conditions were similar to those of 1939 before the Second World War.
The Ukrainian government has on several occasions called for an EU peacekeeping mission (see EUROPE 11278), which the European states do not want, highlighting the OSCE monitoring mission. The United Nations could not implement such a mission either, due to a possible veto from Russia, which is opposed to the idea of such a mission.
Patriarch Philaret also called for the EU's economic sanctions against Moscow to be strengthened.
During his visit to Brussels, the patriarch met European Council President Donald Tusk, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides, European Parliament President Martin Schulz and MEPs. (Camille-Cerise Gessant)