US Ukrainian Orthodox Bishops Condemn Alaska Archbishop’s Meeting With Putin

An American Orthodox archbishop’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska has sparked outrage from Ukrainian Orthodox leaders in the United States, who called it a “betrayal of Christian witness” amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Archbishop Alexei, the Orthodox Church in America’s bishop of Alaska, met Putin on Friday at Fort Richardson National Cemetery in Anchorage following the Russian leader’s summit with US President Donald Trump. The two exchanged warm greetings and religious icons, with Alexei expressing gratitude for the Russian missionaries who brought Orthodoxy to Alaska. “I’ve been home,” he said of his regular visits to Russia. Putin replied: “Please feel at home whenever you come.”

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA condemned the encounter, saying it conferred legitimacy on a leader accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court. “Such gestures are a betrayal of the Gospel of Christ and scandalous to the faithful,” wrote Metropolitan Antony and Archbishop Daniel, citing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, mass killings, and destruction.

In a follow-up letter to Alaska priests, Alexei defended the meeting, saying his remarks referred to past missionaries, not current politics, and that venerating icons honors the saints, not the giver. He acknowledged the gestures could be “misunderstood” but said he sought “a pastoral word of peace.”

The meeting highlights how divisions over the Ukraine war have deepened longstanding rifts within global Orthodoxy. The Moscow-backed Russian Orthodox Church has openly supported the invasion, while Ukraine’s Orthodox churches — split between those aligned with Moscow and those independent — have denounced it.

Putin, who often emphasizes his Orthodox faith, used the Alaska visit to pay respects at Soviet war graves and reiterated that peace in Ukraine would require “an adequate environment for the Orthodox Church and Christian faith.”