Zelensky vows more ‘retribution’ for Russia in independence address

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed more retribution against Russia Saturday and signed a law banning the Moscow branch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as the country celebrated its third independence day since the Russian invasion.

Zelensky addressed Ukrainians in a video filmed in the forested border area from where Kyiv launched its surprise incursion into Russia on August 6.

Kyiv celebrates independence from the Soviet Union as the long war with Russia has reached a dramatic moment, with Ukraine mounting the Kursk incursion and Moscow eyeing more east Ukrainian towns.

Standing amid a hilly area a “few kilometres” from where Kyiv’s forces entered Russia, Zelensky said “Russia was seeking one thing: to destroy us.

“Instead, today we celebrate the 33rd Independence Day of Ukraine. And what the enemy brought to our land has now returned to its home.”

He called President Vladimir Putin a “sick man from Red Square who constantly threatens everyone with the red button.”

Ukraine’s Kursk invasion has rattled Moscow, but not slowed Russia’s advance in eastern Ukraine.

Kyiv has been evacuating some residents from the logistics hub of Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region, amid fears that it will fall to Russian forces.

‘Liberation from Moscow’s devils’

Zelensky also signed into law a bill that bans the Moscow-affiliated branch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the war-torn country.

The Ukrainian leader said the move will strengthen his country’s independence and in an address on Saturday declared that the “Ukrainian Orthodox (church) today is taking a step towards liberation from Moscow’s devils.”

Ukraine has been seeking to distance itself from the Russian church since 2014 and the efforts have accelerated since Russia’s 2022 invasion.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church officially broke away from the Moscow patriarchy in 2022, but Ukrainian officials repeatedly accuse its clerics of staying loyal to Russia.

Russia’s invasion has been backed by the country’s Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Kirill, a staunch ally of President Vladimir Putin.

Russia has slammed the move as “illegal”.

The Russian Orthodox Church, which used to preside over a large part of Ukrainian parishes, is furious over a historic schism in 2019 that saw the creation of a Kyiv-based branch of the church.

This week it called the ban comparable to “persecutions in the Roman Empire in the times of Nero and Diocletian, the so-called de-Christianisation of France and atheist repressions in the Soviet Union.”

The Moscow church called the law a “political declaration” that will affect “hundreds of monasteries”.

Under the law, a time limit is set for religious groups to break their ties with Russia.

Russia said Saturday its air defences had destroyed seven Ukrainian drones over its southern Voronezh region and Belgorod and Bryansk border regions.

Voronezh governor Alexander Gusev said a state of emergency was declared in the Ostrogozhsky district after the drone strikes with 200 people evacuated from a small village, but did not elaborate on what exactly was hit.

He said one woman was hospitalised and in a “serious condition”.

Ukraine has hit Russian regions with drone attacks for months.