hovorun used to work for kirill, and quit in 2012. cyril: i tried to convince him that this ideology is going to be extremely dangerous, destructive for the church, for himself, for russia, and for ukraine. we see this outcome, this result of this ideology moving masses of people, masses of russian soldiers to fight in ukraine and securing a very wide support for putin in his war. nick: for more than 1000 years, ukrainian orthodox churches sat inside a larger russian orthodox church. but then russia annexed crimea from ukraine. by 2019, ukraine's president and the overall head of the orthodox church in constantinople declared the ukrainian orthodox church independent. that means at this ukrainian orthodox service in lviv, father viktor kayda can feature the ukrainian language and speak freely about russia. as seen on a local tv report, he used to lead a ukrainian orthodox church in the southern city of kherson, parts of which aroccupied by russia. he says religious vides became political. father kayda: belonging to either the russian

their leader is patriarch kirill, who has framed russia's invasion of ukraine in holy terms. in a sermon in early march, he railed against the influences of the western world, it's excess consumption and gay pride parades, saying we're talking about human salvation. andrey sinitsyn, who is from moscow, agrees with his parish's split. >> it's got to close to the government. >> reporter: how is that, as a church goer, a believe rr -- >> the church should be independent. i believe that the church is the main supplier of the ideology. >> reporter: father cyril hovorun was the advisor until 2012. >> was equals the guns and ideas. and the guns are, of course, supplied by the kremlin, and the ideas come from the church. >> reporter: and father cyril believes putin sees this war as a sacred is mission. >> a mission from god to purge the world of the western ideas and western values. >> reporter: you're saying that the church has created the ideological undeunderpining for the war? >> actually, when i was working there, i was witnessing how this ideology was emerging, and i protested

on orthodox easter in moscow, the service is led by patriarch kirill, a longtime kremlin partner. he portrays the war as part of moscow's defense of eastern ukraine from what he disparages as western ideals. >> the donbas is a rejection of the so-called values offered by those who lay claim to global domination. today, there is a certain test for loyalty to that power. >> do you know what that test is? >> it's a gay parade. >> putin and his confederates, including those in the church, preserve present the war as almost like a sacred crusade against the presumably godless west. nick: cyril hovorun is a ukrainian orthodox priest and professor of theology at university college, stockholm. i spoke to him from ukraine via skype. >> they believe ukraine th ukraine is the cradle of what they call the russian civilization. and it has a kind of mystical, i would say, mythical connectedness with modern russia. i personally would call this ideology, make russia great again. i think that is a kind of the essence of what putin tries to achieve with the support of this of the church. nick: patr

i dare say many of them are appalled right now by what they hear from patriarch kirill... yes, yes. ..and his support for putin, his blessing of the russian military machine. but, nonetheless, for centuries, in religious terms, ukrainians have looked east. ukrainians looked east, but the east was not in moscow for centuries, but east was in constantinople. that's where the christianity came from. mm—hm. and that's where the jurisdiction was. the orthodox church was under the jurisdiction of constantinople until late 17th century. and then we see the takeover of ukraine by moscow — muscovite state, then the russian empire, and switching and switching centre toward saint petersburg first and then to moscow. what you see happening now is really a major, major cracks appearing in this orthodox unity or traditional unity of the last few centuries, to a degree that the leader of the ukrainian orthodox church under the moscow patriarchate issues an appeal to putin, talking about the sin of gain. so it's about really turning this argument about brotherly peoples and brotherly

even though it comes from a russian dissident exiled director kirill serebrennikov, who condemned the war and sought refuge in germany. cinema and art in general is a huge statement around how valuable human�*s life is, how important human life is. it's absolutely anti—war statement. ukrainian film—maker dmytro sukholytkyy—sobchuk is annoyed by this film's presence and its director at the festival. it should be normal process when the cultural institutions cancel every russian citizen. when he here, he the part of the russian propaganda. mesdames et messieurs, volodymyr zelensky. applause. despite president zelensky�*s plea in a live video address to the opening night audience at cannes not to stay silent over russia's invasion of ukraine, the reality is that cinema at cannes isn't likely to have much direct impact on the war. but what, at least, film here on the french rivera can do is get people to think about the war and all its complexities. there has been no escape. when the film parasite won the top prize, the palme d'0r, here at cannes two years ago, and then went on

even though it comes from a russian dissident exiled director kirill serebrennikov, who condemned the war and sought refuge in germany. cinema and art in general is a huge statement around how valuable human�*s life is, how important human life is. it's absolutely anti—war statement. ukrainian film—maker dmytro sukholytkyy—sobchuk is annoyed by this film's presence and its director at the festival. it should be normal process when the cultural institutions cancel every russian citizen. when he here, he the part of the russian propaganda. mesdames et messieurs, volodymyr zelensky. applause. despite president zelensky�*s plea in a live video address to the opening night audience at cannes not to stay silent over russia's invasion of ukraine, the reality is that cinema at cannes isn't likely to have much direct impact on the war. but what, at least, film here on the french rivera can do is get people to think about the war and all its complexities. there has been no escape. when the film parasite won the top prize, the palme d'or, here at cannes two years ago, and then went on

. >> reporter: and among the "more," another close confident of putin, the patriarch kirill, the russian orthodox wealth who is said to have wealth beyond a average church leader. he has strongly supported what he called in a certainly man putin's peacekeeping operation which he added was a religious cleansing operation to liberate russian speakers in ukraine. in a highly unusual comment from the vatican, the pope said of che cannot become putin's. the plan to wean off gas and oil by the on the other hand this year, however, several countries are already demanding exceptions to that because of their heavy reliance on russian energy. jim bittermann, cnn, paris. >>> italy, meanwhile, has seized a super yacht believed to be connected to russia. italian authorities say the owner of the scheherazade is linked to elements of the russian government. the vessel has been under scrutiny since march for possible connections to vladimir putin. the super yacht is said to be worth about $700 million. >>> still to come here on the program, the future of abortion rights in the u.s. appears to be up in t

two sources tell cnn the european is planning to include patriarch kirill in its new round of sanction. for viewers in the u.s., my colleague rosemary church will be back with more news. if your moderate to severe crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms are stopping you in your tracks... choose stelara® from the start.... and move towoward relief after the first dose... with injections every y two months. stelara® may increase your risk of infections, some serious, and cancer. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, sores, new skin growths, have had cancer, or if you need a vaccine. pres, a rare, potentially fatal brain condition, may be possible. some serious allergic reactions and lung inflammation can occur. feel unstoppable. ask your doctor how lasting remission can start with stelara®. janssen can help you explore cost support options. we got the house! you did! pods handles the driving. pack at your pace. store your things until you're ready. then we deliver to your new home - across town or across the country.

he revealed, the pope, that the first 20 minutes of the 40-minute conversation, that the patriarch kiril held a piece of paper and read a very long list of justification for the war in ukraine, including stuff that russian speakers in ukraine were being persecuted, so forth. basically he was repeating the rhetoric by vladimir putin and russia as a justification for the war. and that may be one of the reasons why later on in the interview, the pope said that, you know, they are spiritual leaders, they shouldn't talk about politics, they should talk about peace. he said, he should not act like putin's altar boy. the russian orthodox church didn't take that well. yesterday they issued a statement saying that those were regrettable words, it was the wrong tone and, of course, it damages the dialogue between the russian -- the russian orthodox church and the catholic church, which, of course, was improving a lot, especially thanks to pope francis up to the start of the war in ukraine. the two were met to meet in jerusalem in the middle of june. guess what. well, that meeting has been canceled

>> reporter: yeah, there is a man by the name of kirill stremousov who was reportedly on this telegram channel who was saying that he is going to make a formal request to become part of the russian federation, basically saying let the russians have -- they have taken over this place, i have been installed as the new local leader here and people can now once i do this apply for russian citizenship, of course ukraine is saying, look, we plan on fighting to get that territory back, but it does give you some idea of the ground that has been lost by the ukrainian forces there in the east. and it also tells you a little something about how russia operates once they go into a place, they start trying to change it, into russia, even though it is ukraine's sovereign territory. and by doing that, they install someone that is -- that is their political puppet, for example, to start doing that. the citizens there are obviously afraid, upset, and wondering which side of this is going to win in the end. >> yeah. as the mayor of mykolaiv yesterday, i asked him whether he believes that when he hears f