The Russian Orthodox Church said soldiers should be given the chance to venerate the remains of Prince Dmitry Donskoy "as soon as possible." Vakhtang Kipshidze, deputy head of the Moscow Patriarchate's synodal department for church-society and media relations, commented on plans to send the prince's remains to the combat zone in Ukraine, calling the decision "reasonable."
The remains were discovered in July in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin during restoration work. Specialists found cracks in the lid of the white-stone sarcophagus and opened the burial. Anthropologists determined the remains were almost fully preserved; their authenticity was confirmed by examination.
Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky called the finding of the relics "unexpected, almost fairy-tale." The church said the question of where the relics will be kept is still under consideration, but access for believers will be opened in one of the central churches.
Some commentators questioned the significance of the find. A columnist for Ekho noted that the prince's burial in the Archangel Cathedral was common knowledge, and called the opening of the grave and the subsequent division of the remains "barbarism." In his view, the prince's grave was enough for veneration, and he compared what happened to manipulations with the bodies of saints in Catholicism.
Sources differ: the church and state media call the discovery of the remains the finding of relics and a "almost fairy-tale" event, while some outlets call the opening of a known burial and plans to divide the remains "barbarism" and "disgrace."