VLADIMIR-VOLYNSKY (Volyn Region, Ukraine), August 4 (RIA Novosti) - The head of the Russian Orthodox Church has clarified the situation surrounding his controversial visit to western Ukraine's city of Rovno.

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia had planned to visit the city Sunday but Ukrainian authorities talked him out of the idea citing security concerns. The patriarch, after learning how much the city residents wanted to see him, visited the city the following day - on Monday.

"As for the hitch with my visit to Rovno, I am not sure there was any malicious intent here," he told west Ukrainian clergy in the Zimnensky Monastery near the western Ukrainian town of Vladimir-Volynsky.

The patriarch, who is seeking to improve relations with Kiev, said that when his 10-day visit to Ukraine was being prepared, he was advised against visiting Rovno.

Kirill said he was also contacted on Sunday by "one of the most high-ranking presidential administration officials" and told not to visit Rovno as "the Kiev authorities were not sure that they would be able to control the situation."

He said instead of visiting Rovno he went to the capital Kiev.

"When I arrived in Kiev, I found out that people had waited for me and how many Rovno residents had come out onto the streets to support me, and I decided to visit Rovno the next day," he said, adding that he was deeply touched by the warm reception he was given there.

In Rovno, Kirill thanked the city residents for waiting for his arrival, and gave them icons of St. Prince Vladimir who baptized medieval Kievan Rus 1,021 years ago.

"There were also people who shouted there. These young people looked like dummies that had phrases prepared beforehand that they needed to articulate," Kirill said.

The liberal church leader Kirill is looking to mend fences between Moscow and the divided Orthodox churches in Ukraine, which split in the 1990s following the breakup of the Soviet Union into followers of Moscow Orthodoxy and those seeking an independent national church.

The predominant self-governing branch of Ukrainian Orthodoxy that is loyal to the Moscow Patriarchate oversees 10,000 parishes in the country, while the rival Ukrainian Orthodox Church - the Kiev Patriarchate, is not recognized outside of the country.

The situation is further complicated by a third church, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, originally formed in 1920s, that operates almost exclusively in the western part of the country.

The Kiev Patriarchate has widespread support in western Ukraine, including the backing of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko who is in favor of a national church independent from Moscow.