Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev and All Ukraine greeted the Presidents in the Kiev Cave Monastery, and accompanied them on a round of the oldest monastic retreat of Kiev and its Assumption Cathedral.
Built in 1078, the cathedral was badly damaged several times, and repeatedly rose again in opulence. Ruined almost to the ground during World War Two, it was fully restored fifty years after.
Metropolitan Vladimir told the visitors about the history of the cathedral, and showed them a miraculously preserved nave with original mediaeval murals.
The Presidents attended a liturgy he served for the wellbeing and prosperity of the two nations and their leaders’ wisdom.
After the service, Metropolitan Vladimir gave Mr Putin an icon of Sts Anthony, Theodosius and all the other holy monks of the Kiev caves, and received an icon of St Seraphim of Sarov, painted about a hundred years ago, as a return gift. The President thanked the monastic community for organising his visit, and passed best wishes from Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and All Russia to Metropolitan Vladimir.
Presidents Putin and Kuchma, and Dmitry Medvedev, the head of the Russian Presidential Executive Office, finished their visit to the monastery with a talk to Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox Church hierarchs. Mr Putin said that he knew about the split of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church but made it a point not to get involved. He stressed that Russian secular authorities were aware of how the split worried the Ukrainian Church and flock but would not interfere in Church affairs not to affect the independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from Russia and its Orthodox Church. The contacts between the two Churches concerned only canonical and theological matters, Mr Putin said. He added that those contacts were an essential part of the links between the two fraternal nations, and appealed for the preservation and all-round development of inter-Church relations.