The Chaplain of St Andrew's Moscow and Area Dean of Russia and the Ukraine, Rev Canon Malcolm Rogers, gave an update on the mood among Russians.
"Moscow is a very dark place to be in at the moment," he said.
"Many Russians feel betrayed by their government who up to a week ago were saying that war was unthinkable."
There "is a huge amount of fear" in Moscow, he reported, "the fear of what happens if it all gets out of control, especially if there is a long conflict, the fear of what it means for the future of both Ukraine and Russia".
Canon Rogers related how one man told him on the afternoon before the service that the Russian military invasion of Ukraine amounted to "the return of totalitarianism".
He also reported that Moscow residents are fearful that the Russian economy could return to the deprivations of the early 1980s under Soviet Communism.
"And there is the fear of total isolation from the West, of becoming a hated pariah people. More than a few have said that they are ashamed of being Russian," he said. CT.
