The patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Cyril, who celebrated Christmas with Russian President Vladimir Putin, said today that the Western world despises Russia and its “alternative path of civilized development.”

Russia’s Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January 7, according to the Julian calendar.

Patriarch Kirill, a staunch supporter of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, blessed religious icons and crosses on which President Putin’s initials were to be engraved to be sent to soldiers who have been fighting in Ukraine for 34 months, Russian news agencies reported, citing a Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Russia poses a challenge to powerful countries, not because of its nuclear capabilities or its power, Kirill said, according to news agencies.

“They hate us because we offer a different, alternative path of civilized development,” Cyril commented at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which was rebuilt in the 1990s on the site of a swimming pool after it was destroyed by Soviet dictator Iosif Stalin in the 1930s.

The West is in moral collapse, he said, but Russia has shown the world how to combine science and culture with education and faith.

“They practically cannot defeat us, although they are trying with different types of vilification and by creating some kind of coalitions aimed at weakening Russia. None of this will succeed because God is with us,” he concluded.

Putin has turned to the Church for support in the war in Ukraine and has condemned what he calls Western decadence, including the protection of gay and bisexual rights.

In his Christmas message, the Russian president praised the Church for “strengthening the institution of the family, the upbringing of young people, and the affirmation of moral ideals.”