He also praised the Orthodox Church, whose influential head Patriarch Kirill has fully backed Putin's offensive in Ukraine."Such great, multifaceted, truly ascetic work deserves the most sincere respect," he added.Patriarch Kirill has called on believers to support pro-Russian "brothers" during Moscow's offensive in eastern Ukraine.On February 24 last year, Putin sent troops to Ukraine, saying the fellow Orthodox Christian country needed to be "demilitarised."But AFP journalists heard both outgoing and incoming shelling in the frontline city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine after the time when the Russian ceasefire was supposed to have begun."