Topless feminist confronts Russian patriarch

Inna Sokolovska / EPA

A topless activist of the Ukrainian feminist group Femen attempts to confront Patriarch Kirill, center right, after he landed at the Boryspil Airport in Kyiv, Ukraine on July 26, 2012.

Gleb Garanich / Reuters

Patriarch Kirill, right, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, attends a welcoming ceremony as he arrives at the airport in Kyiv.

A topless woman confronted the head of the Russian Orthodox Church as he arrived in Kyiv on Thursday in the latest in a string of eye-catching stunts pulled by a Ukrainian feminist group.

An activist from the Femen women's rights group rushed towards Patriarch Kirill with bared breasts, yelling "Get out!", the Russian state news agency reported, before she was bundled away by security guards.

The European Pressphoto Agency reported that the Femen protest aimed to highlight a demand for greater independence for Ukraine's main orthodox church, which still answers to the Moscow Patriarchate.

"Regrettably, people are trying to mar the Patriarch's visit to Ukraine through these stunts," the head of the patriarch's press service, Deacon Alexander Volkov, said, adding that such incidents signal "a deep spiritual crisis in some social circles."

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