Moscow, December 29, Interfax - The Moscow Patriarchate has called for an end to violence against the Orthodox Christians in Ukraine.

“I am calling on the people, who break into churches, to stop, realize and feel that such an aggression, especially in the days when the whole Christian world is celebrating Christmas, is absolutely unacceptable,” says Vladimir Legoyda, the head of the Synodal Information Department, the Department’s press office said.

If you recall Nikolay Gogol’s famous story “Christmas Eve,” it becomes evident “with whom those, who, having donned black masks, attack the God’s house before the coming of the Savior, identify themselves with,” he said.

“We hear hypocritical statements from those who are presumably behind these attacks but no words can explain, nor justify the violence against the God-loving Ukrainian people who come with faith to the canonical Orthodox churches in order to pray before Christmas for peace in their homeland,” Legoyda said.

It was reported that last night supporters of the self-proclaimed Kiev Patriarchate and Right Sector representatives seized two churches of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Ukraine’s Rovno region in the early hours on Friday morning. Six Orthodox churches in the same region had been pillaged earlier.