Ukraine's Interior Ministry on December 15 placed the head of Russia's Orthodox Church, a backer of the Kremlin's 21-month-old war against Kyiv, on a wanted list after security services accused him of abetting the conflict. The measure is purely symbolic as Patriarch Kirill is in Russia and under no threat of arrest. It was the latest step in Ukraine's campaign to uproot the influence of priests it alleges maintain close links to Russia and subvert Ukrainian society. A Ukrainian ministry post identified Kirill by name and described him as "an individual in hiding from the bodies of pretrial investigation."
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