KYIV: Ukraine will move to impose limitations on religious organisations in the country which have links to Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address on Thursday.
"The National Security and Defence Council has instructed the government to propose to (parliament) a bill on proscribing activities in Ukraine by religious organisations affiliated with centres of influence in Russia," Zelensky said.
"National security officials should intensify measures to identify and counteract the subversive activities of the Russian special services in the religious space in Ukraine."
Ukraine had been under Moscow's spiritual leadership since at least the 17th century, but part of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church broke with Moscow in 2019 over Russia's annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in Donbas.
In May, the war caused the Moscow-backed branch of Ukraine's Orthodox Church to sever ties with Russia, in a historic move against the Russian spiritual authorities.
Patriarch Kirill, the leader of Russia's Orthodox Church, made headlines in October when he said Russian President Vladimir Putin's rule had been mandated by God as he wished the Russian leader a happy 70th birthday.
As many as 13,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed since Russia's invasion in February, a senior adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
"We have official estimates from the General Staff... And they range from 10,000 ... to 13,000 dead," Mykhailo Podolyak told Ukraine's Channel 24 on Thursday.
Zelensky would make the official data public "when the right moment comes", he added.
In June, as Russian forces battled to take full control of the easternmost Lugansk region, Zelensky said Ukraine was losing "60 to 100 soldiers per day, killed in action, and around 500 people wounded in action".
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu in September said 5,937 Russian troops had been killed in the nearly seven months of fighting to that point. Both sides are suspected of minimising their losses to avoid damaging the morale of their troops.
Top US general Mark Milley last month said more than 100,000 Russian military personnel have been killed or wounded in Ukraine, with Kyiv's forces likely suffering similar casualties.
Those figures -- which could not be independently confirmed -- are the most precise to date from the US government. Thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been killed in the worst fighting in Europe in decades.: Zelensky