KYIV, Sept. 30 – Patriarch Filaret, who led a split of the Ukrainian church from its Russian parent 26 years ago, is close to achieving his dream of an independent national church and is ready to lead it, Reuters reported.

Divisions between rival Orthodox factions have sharpened in Ukraine since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the outbreak of a Kremlin-backed separatist insurgency in the eastern Donbass region.

For President Petro Poroshenko, establishing an independent church is a way of blunting Moscow’s influence in Ukraine. If he pulls it off, it would also likely boost his chances in a tight re-election race next March.

For that to happen, Ukraine needs the formal backing of the Ecumenical Patriarch in Turkey, the global spiritual head of Orthodox Christians.

Filaret, now 89, said Ukraine could be weeks away from achieving its goal despite fierce opposition from Moscow, and that a synod in Istanbul would approve autocephaly latest by the end of this year. The Russian Orthodox Church has already protested by breaking off ties with Istanbul in September.

“I do not see any obstacles to getting the Tomos,” Filaret told Reuters, referring to the formal announcement that would grant the Ukrainian church “autocephaly”, or independence.

During the Maidan street protests that eventually toppled Yanukovych in 2014, his church offered shelter to injured demonstrators. He says Ukraine’s place was in Europe, not under President Vladimir Putin’s Russia, and has urged the West to keep sanctions on Russia.

“Putin wants to return to the past, to the period when empires existed,” Filaret said in an interview.

“But the period of the empires is over. We have already entered a period of globalization while Putin wants to remain in the period of empires.”

The separatist conflict fueled by Russia in Donbas has heightened tensions between a church aligned with Russian Orthodoxy — widely referred to in Ukraine as the Moscow Patriarchate — against Filaret’s breakaway rival called the Kiev Patriarchate.

Critics of the Moscow Patriarchate call it a fifth column for the Kremlin, used to harbor separatist fighters, store weapons, justify Russian expansionism and spread anti-Ukrainian propaganda. Critics of Filaret call him illegitimate.

Filaret said he is fit enough to lead the new autocephalous church if chosen, something he puts down to a moderate diet and looking after his health.

The Moscow Patriarchate said there can be no compromise with Filaret in charge, and its supporters have warned of bloodshed if Ukraine completes its break from Russia.

“If I fought for 26 years for the autocephaly of the Ukrainian church and believed that it would happen then of course, as long as God gives me strength, I will serve the Ukrainian church till the end,” Filaret said.

“There will be provocations and we anticipate them, but we will do everything according to the law, voluntarily and without any violence.” (rt/ez)