The Russian Orthodox Church, Complicit in War

"We have to create conditions where no actors dependent on the aggressor state [Russia] will have an opportunity to manipulate Ukrainians and weaken Ukraine from within."

"We will never allow anyone to build an empire inside the Ukrainian soul."

"[Government officials are ordered to] ensure the religious examination of the Management Statute of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church for the presence of a church-canonical connection with the Moscow Patriarchate and, if necessary, to take measures provided for by law."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy 

"[Leaders of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church declare] full independence [from Russia, and that its council had] approved the corresponding additions and changes to the Statute on the Management of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, indicating the full autonomy and independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church."

Leadership statement, May 2022

Ukrainian law enforcement officers inspect one of churches of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine November 22, 2022. REUTERS/Vladyslav Musiienko

 

Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople in his role as spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians worldwide, gave permission in 2019 to Ukraine to form a church that would be independent of Moscow. This led to a split in the Orthodox community within Ukraine. Those mostly in eastern Ukraine who wanted to remain loyal to Moscow split from the larger group throughout the country that opted to be independent of the Russian Orthodox Church. And while the Ukrainian Orthodox Church maintained its links to Russia, the breakaway Orthodox Church of Ukraine did not. 

Early in the 'special military operation' that Putin describes the Russian invasion of Ukraine as, Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church with whom Vladimir Putin has a close association, fully endorsed Putin's invasion of Ukraine. He might have remained neutral, he might gently have chastised the Russian President for waging a brutal war on a neighbour with whom religious devotion is shared along with a common history (of historic Russian aggression against Ukraine, including the Holodomor) but he chose to give his full support.

This has led to suspicion against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church's role in supporting the Russian invasion.More than that, the suspicion that the church and some of its clerics could be playing an active role in passing critical information along to the Kremlin about internal matters concerning Ukraine. Ukraine's security service raided Orthodox monasteries located in several cities in a search for Russian spies and concealed weapons.

 

Kirill and Putin, in perfect accord   Reuters

 

The Pecherak Lavra in Kyiv, a thousand-year-old monastic community spoken of as the cradle of the Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox churches was searched by the SEU to prevent the use of the Lavra as a centre of the 'Russian world'.": The search was undertaken to "protect the population from provocations and terrorist acts" and to investigate allegations that church property was being used "to hide sabotage and intelligence groups, foreign citizens, and to store weapons".

The Koretsky Holy Trinity monastery and the Sarny-Polissia Eparchy in Rivne, western Ukraine, were also raided. Armed men in camouflage were shown in footage interviewing cassocked priests. All three of these monasteries are affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, a branch against which allegations of of collaboration with Russia has been detected since the war began.

In November Basyl Malynuk, head of he SBU, spoke of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine as "perfect ground for the functioning of an enemy human intelligence network", stating that 33 priests suspected of gathering information or acting as spotters for Russian artillery had been detained since February.  This has been construed as an "act of intimidation" by the Russian Orthodox Church.

"Like many other cases of persecution of believers in Ukraine since 2014 (when Luhansk and Donetsk ethnic-Russian Ukrainian rebels declared those provinces detached from Ukraine and allied with Russia, and Moscow annexed the coveted Crimean peninsula), this act of intimidation is almost certain to go unnoticed by those who call themselves the international human rights community", stated Vladimir Legoida, spokesman for the church.

Abbot of the Pechersk monastery, Metropolitan Pavlo, strenuously denied charges that he had prayed for Russia -- in the wake of footage emerging of people within the monastery singing a pro-Moscow song.

Ukrainian law enforcement officers stand next to an entrance to the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery compound, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Nov. 22, 2022.

 

Russian Barbaric, Reckless Nationalism

"Russia was forced to take steps to protect itself from the neo-Nazis who were shelling civilians in Donbass for eight years, and continue to this day."

"Russia's special military action was a reaction to] Ukrainian nationalists who for many years were killing peaceful citizens ... "

"They don't act in a Christian way but at the instigation of demonic powers ... there is no other way to call that absolutely barbaric, reckless nationalism they profess."

"You'd think that the West would listen and come to some sort of terms with Russia on these issues because we're talking about a potential nuclear war."

"I would venture to say the war was not started by Russia; it was started by the West."

Archbishop Gabriel, Canadian head of the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia

Archbishop Gabriel of Montreal and Canada referred to Ukrainian forces as “neo-Nazi” and “demonic,” and said his parishes would continue to commemorate Patriarch Kirill in services. Photo by Wikipedia

"I know many Ukrainians have stopped attending the [Toronto] parish or stopped shopping in their church goods store as a result."

"Overall, this is a very difficult time for Orthodox unity in general. Many Orthodox Christians in Canada are having serious crises of faith watching the Russian Orthodox church bless troops going into Ukraine to rape and pillage."

Reverend Alexander Laschuk, executive director, University of Toronto Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies

How hard to believe it is that human intelligence can be so skewed from reality that the aggressor attributes all of its most horrendous atrocities to the commission of its victims. That it is Russia and Russian troops that are exerting truly barbaric measures so far from the Christian ideal of treating others as you would have them treat you, and attributing the viciously violent mayhem that the Kremlin has visited on its neighbour, to the victim is mind-gaspingly unbelievable, a parody of veracity.

 

As for the dreadful prospect of a nuclear conflagration: who was it who not-so-obliquely and a touch archly referred to their nuclear arsenal being 'on alert' and at the ready to be deployed should the occasion arise?  Yes, the world knows that Russia has a huge nuclear arsenal, reputed to be the largest in the world. How many of its atomic bombs would be needed to destroy humanity?

 

But there he is, Russia's Orthodox Church head representative in Canada, tarnishing its own reputation by imputing to Ukraine and its military the debased medieval mindset of destruction, looting and murder it is itself committed to, extolling the virtues of Russia while painting the desperate efforts of its neighbour to defend itself and its people as un-Christian, and repellent, the reflection of an imputed neo-Nazi scheme to harm Russia. 

 

Residential and commercial buildings in Kharkiv that have been pummeled by Russian missile strikes.  Photograph by Larry Towell/Magnum photos.

 

The Kremlin's talking points in defence of its 'special military operation' in Ukraine which has levelled towns and villages, sent millions of Ukrainian civilians into exile, displaced millions more, targeting schools, civic centres and hospitals with continued shelling; occupied Europe's largest nuclear installation, placing the community around it under siege, and endangering the entire country by a threat of a nuclear accident, are now echoed in far-off Canada by the Church's elite cleric.

It seems evident from his scathing remarks that Canada is home to citizens of Russian origin who believe as he does, clasping the Kremlin's views and excuses of attacking a neighbour because it has been provoked by fear of a fascist invasion, when the truth is far closer to the Kremlin being a fascist government under a Putin dictatorship. The occupation of the Donbas is illegal in every sense of internationally-recognized sovereignty. 

Crimea's annexation by Moscow represents a war crime just as does the indiscriminate bombing of civilian infrastructure and deliberate targeting of civilians. In Ukraine's latest election, no far-right candidates won office. The man elected as president of Ukraine is a Jewish Ukrainian whose relatives died in the Holocaust. The infamous Azov battalion which earned its fascist reputation during World War II is distant from the extremist element that once characterized its relations with the German SS.

And in Canada it is known that one of the Russian Orthodox Churches in Toronto raises funds for the 'Donetsk People's Republic' in Eastern Ukraine, ruled by ethnic Russian Ukrainian separatist elements.  Bishop Gabriel made it known in an interview that the atrocities recognized as war crimes the West charges Russia with, were actually committed by Ukraine in a diabolical scheme to blacken Russia's international image.

 

A woman stands by a mass grave in Bucha. Photograph by Larry Towell/Magnum photos

"Mr. Chemodskov's [Bishop Gabriel was born George Chemodskov] comments are unacceptable and they should be denounced for what they are: Russian disinformation."

"The fact is that Russia is fighting a war of choice against Ukraine and Russian forces are committing atrocities on a massive scale."

"We cannot let the Putin regime escape international accountability by spreading lies."

Adrien Blanchard, spokesman for Foreign Affairs Canada

In Moscow, Patriarch Kirill, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, and universal  head of the Russian Orthodox Church, has wholly supported the war with Ukraine, justifying it in the very same words and explanations used by the Kremlin. His voice is one of the most compelling in support of the invasion of Ukraine. He is known to give blessings to generals and other Russian soldiers. 

 

Kirill has described the war as a measure to "defend the Fatherland" against the decadent Western forces, promoting "Russky Mir", a Russian homeland encompassing Ukraine and Belarus. Belarus may be in the bag, but Ukraine has emphatically declined the honour to return itself to the status of a satellite Communist state, part of Greater Russia. In the process demonstrating that the only 'great' thing about Russia is its penchant for acting as a liberator when it is in reality a totalitarian prison for dissenters.

Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill releases birds celebrating the Annunciation preceding the celebration of Orthodox Easter in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, April 7, 2022. | AP Photo