The head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Filaret, has condemned President Putin’s stance towards Ukraine and the sending of troops by Moscow to Crimea.<br /><br />“The whole world is today in opposition to Putin’s regime. Because he doesn’t act fairly. Ukraine is an independent state. Crimea belongs to Ukraine and he put his troops onto a foreign territory. This is called aggression,” Patriarch Filaret said.<br /><br />The Patriarch was in Kyiv with other religious leaders to pay tribute to those who were killed in the clashes that led to the eventual overthrowal of President Yanukovich. <br /><br />Locals in Kyiv also responded to Russian President Putin’s refusal to recognise their new government.<br /><br />Kyiv resident, Alexei Matuskov, said: “Our country was ready to join a union of dictators, with Lukashenko (president of Belarus), Nazarbaev (president of Kazakhstan) and Putin (president of Russia). I think that what the Ukranians were able to do was a great feat that we were able to escape that yoke. And Putin is very angry now because his plan has failed.”
