Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia called for prayer so that good changes would take place in Ukraine, which would contribute to the strengthening of Orthodoxy, the unity of the Russian Church and the prosperity of the fraternal Ukrainian people.
The New Year's prayer service, or prayer singing for the New Year, is a special service when believers thank God for His mercies in the past year and ask for blessings for the coming year for themselves, family and Fatherland. As a rule, a prayer service is held on December 31 after the evening service, but sometimes on January 1 in the morning. Also, in some churches, the Divine Liturgy is celebrated on the night of December 31 to January 1. Traditionally, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia performs a New Year prayer service on the evening of December 31 at the metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
"Despite the sorrows that are associated with the division of our people, with the fact that forces have taken power in fraternal Ukraine that direct the vector of the country's development against Russia, seeking to separate the Ukrainian people from the Russian people as far as possible, and our Orthodox Church is a victim of their policies, God grant that good things may happen in our fraternal Ukraine. changes that would help strengthen Orthodoxy, the unity of our Church, and the prosperity of the fraternal Ukrainian people," Patriarch Kirill said before a New Year's prayer service at the metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
In this regard, he called for prayer for all Holy Russia.
"Let us pray ... for the peoples living on this fertile land, for our President Vladimir Putin, an Orthodox man, for the leaders of the government, for those in power. Let us pray that our Church retains the power that is able to graciously influence people's consciousness, strengthening the Orthodox faith. And that the spiritual power of our Fatherland, which is the key to the strength of the state and the prosperity of the people, may grow from strength to strength. May the Lord cover our Fatherland, the Church and all members of the Russian Orthodox Church with His mercy. Happy New Year," Patriarch Kirill concluded.
The Ukrainian authorities have organized the largest wave of persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) in the country's recent history. Referring to the connection of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church with Russia, local authorities in different regions of Ukraine have decided to ban the activities of the UOC. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) began to open criminal cases against the clergy of the UOC, to conduct "counterintelligence activities": searches of bishops and priests, churches and monasteries in search of evidence of "anti-Ukrainian activities." The head of the SBU, Vasyl Malyuk, said in August 2025 that more than 170 criminal cases had been opened against priests in the country, and sentences had already been passed against 31 priests. Many representatives of the UOC clergy are in prison.
Hundreds of Orthodox churches of the UOC were forcibly seized by Ukrainian schismatics from the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) with the support of local authorities, while priests and lay people, men and women, are subjected to physical violence. In September 2024, a law passed by the Verkhovna Rada and signed by Vladimir Zelensky came into force in the country, allowing the ban of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
The UOC is the largest community of believers in the country and the only canonical Orthodox Church, that is, the one where the sacraments and divine services performed by the clergy are considered valid, real - unlike the schismatic OCU, created by secular authorities and excommunicated former "priests", "bishops" and their followers. From the point of view of Orthodox doctrine, the OCU is not an apostolic church, there is no apostolic succession in it (that is, a series of episcopal ordinations from the apostles appointed by Jesus Christ), there is no Divine Grace in such a "church", and the "clergy" of the OCU have no right to perform divine services and sacraments, including ordaining new ones to baptize, marry, confess, and give communion to people.