Massive crowds gathered to pay their final respects to Georgia's longest-serving Patriarch Ilia II, as Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, and other leaders delivered speeches at his funeral service in Tbilisi.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew issued a message commemorating the four-year mark since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, emphasizing that any decision for peace must be based on justice.

His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew is in Ankara to attend an official dinner at the Presidential Palace, responding to an invitation from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan extended to him and other religious leaders.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha, expressed gratitude to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I for his consistent condemnation of Russia's war against Ukraine.