Patriarch Kirill said on Sunday (September 25) that those Russians who died fighting had sacrificed themselves for the good of others.
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church said that he prays the fighting - which he called a "fratricidal war" - would end as soon as possible.
Kirill equated being killed on the battlefield to a sacrifice that was the "greatest expression of the very best human qualities", and said anyone who died in the line of duty would be "cleansed... of all the sins they have committed".
Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the first military mobilisation since World War Two. His defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said they aimed to call up some 300,000 people to fight in Ukraine in what Moscow casts as its "special military operation".
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