President Putin has advanced religious arguments in an attempt to justify the invasion of Ukraine, most recently in an interview with the American political commentator Tucker Carlson, Welby said.

Archbishop Welby, however, dismissed such arguments: "There is an argument in favour of debate, discussion, appeal, but there is no argument in favour of armed force: the invasion of Ukraine was a self-chosen, unjust, unjustifiable attack on a neighbour. This war is evil."

Welby was most pointed in responding to Vladimir Putin's appeal to religious concerns in justifying Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Welby believed that there was a recognition of "the enormous mountain there is to climb to achieve security and the objectives of Ukraine, and the colossal human cost at all levels".

It was, he said, "very easy to forget Ukraine", but "there is a real link between what is happening in Ukraine, what is happening in the Middle East, in the Holy Land, and what is happening elsewhere, in terms of the struggle for a world in which going to war is not an option," reported the Church Times.

One must ask the archbishop how the struggle is being accomplished other than with force. Jesus himself said there would be "wars and rumors of wars" till the end time.

The archbishop was on five-day return pastoral visit to Ukraine last week where he made these remarks. Welby met again with members of Christ Church, a small Anglican congregation that meets in a German Lutheran church in Kyiv.

As with his previous visit Ukraine, Welby took shelter during an air-raid warning, this time while visiting the Heritage Ukraine crisis center and shelter. The Church Times reported that as the archbishop sat in the shelter, he worked on papers regarding safeguarding (an action the Church takes to promote a safer culture in all churches,) and the church's protracted debate about Living in Love and Faith.

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