Ukraine Orthodox church breaks with Russia’s

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced the development on Saturday, after a council of Orthodox bishops held an official gathering in the capital, Kiev, to establish an "independent" Orthodox church.

"This day will go down in history as a sacred day... the day of the final independence from Russia," a fiercely anti-Russia Poroshenko told supporters outside Kiev's Saint Sophia Cathedral, claiming that an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church was now a "matter of national security."

"This is a question of Ukrainian statehood,"' he said. "We are seizing spiritual independence, which can be likened to political independence. We are breaking the chains that tie us to the [Russian] empire."

Poroshenko often speaks of a "Russian empire," in what is generally seen as an attempt to drum up anti-Russia sentiments inside Ukraine.

Source: PressTV