The Russian front was missing more than a thousand priests

There are not enough priests in Ukraine to work with war participants. Metropolitan Kirill of Stavropol and Nevinnomyssk, the head of the synodal department for interaction with the armed forces and law enforcement agencies, stated this on air on Rossiya 24, Kommersant reports .

According to the clergyman, now the Ministry of Defense has only 309 full-time positions for military chaplains. “This is extremely little. Today, in the Northern Military District zone, 1,300 clergy are needed to work with personnel,” he said, adding that almost 70% of the priests at the front are volunteers.

The representative of the Russian Orthodox Church added that the church is in “close contact” with the Ministry of Defense on this issue. According to him, the situation should be resolved soon. The Metropolitan also said that since the beginning of the war, six priests had been killed at the front, and eight more were injured. “Our task is to help the families of these priests, to provide them with material and spiritual assistance, because they are all family people, they have large families,” he added.

Kommersant notes that earlier the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, reported that five priests died at the front in 2022.

In the fall of 2022, after the start of mobilization, Metropolitan Arseny of Lipetsk and Zadonsk appealed to the heads of church districts with an appeal to discuss the fate of the mobilized priests. He said that clergy did not have “armor” or deferment from mobilization. The Metropolitan proposed introducing for them the opportunity to work with believing soldiers and not sending them to the front to directly participate in hostilities.

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