KIEV, July 27 (RIA Novosti) - The leader...

Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, arrived in Ukraine"s capital on Monday for what he called a "pilgrimage" to the birthplace of Russian Orthodoxy.

"He arrived to promote a political project of integrating Ukraine into Russia, to promote unity under the Kremlin leadership, from which Ukraine, by God"s blessing and on people"s will, got rid in 1991," said self-proclaimed Patriarch Filaret, who was excommunicated from the Russian Orthodox Church in mid 1990s.

"This political project could have various tags: "The Holy Russia - Russia, Ukraine and Belarus," "historical Russia," "eastern Slavic civilization" or "the unity of Orthodox peoples" but in essence it is aimed at depriving Ukraine of its sovereignty," he said.

Patriarch Kirill told thousands of believers after leading a prayer by the statue of Vladimir I of Kiev, who converted to Christianity in 988 and baptized the medieval state of Rus, that he came "as

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