(OSV News) — The Russian Orthodox Church is playing a “leading role” in efforts to destroy Ukraine and Ukrainians, said a Ukrainian Catholic archbishop.
Led by Moscow Patriarch Kirill, the ROC “has been happy to provide ideological justification” for Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which was launched in February 2022, said Metropolitan Archbishop Borys Gudziak of the Archeparchy of Philadelphia and head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the U.S.
Archbishop Gudziak, who also serves as the worldwide Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church’s chief of external relations, shared his thoughts in a recent article he wrote for the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based nonpartisan think tank.
Published on the council’s website Aug. 3, “Russian Orthodox leader Patriarch Kirill’s unholy war against Ukraine” by Archbishop Gudziak outlines how the ROC has cast the war — which continues attacks initiated in 2014 — as “a metaphysical battle” against the West, blessed by Patriarch Kirill and endorsed by most Russians.
The archbishop said the ROC “has been instrumental in promoting (Russian President) Vladimir Putin’s dream of restoring the Russian Empire,” with Patriarch Kirill lauding Putin’s ascent to power as a “miracle of God.”
Patriarch Kirill has become “one of the war’s most prominent promoters” through “thinly veiled attempts to blame the war on the Western world while denying Ukraine’s right to an independent national identity,” said Archbishop Gudziak.
Thousands of deaths, widespread destruction
According to Ukraine’s government, since February 2022, Russia has killed more than 9,360 Ukrainian civilians and injured some 16,650, while committing close to 102,300 documented war crimes.
Currently, there are an estimated 5.1 million individuals internally displaced within Ukraine, according to the International Organization for Migration, part of the United Nations network. More than 6.2 million Ukrainians have sought safety abroad since the start of the full-scale invasion. Ukraine claims at least 2.5 million Ukrainians have been deported to the Russian Federation, and that close to 19,600 children are being held in Russian “re-education” camps, with the actual number for the latter feared to be much higher.
Prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion, some 14,400 Ukrainians were killed and 39,000 injured between 2014 to 2021 in conflict with separatists militarily assisted by Russia, according to the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Russia’s war has resulted in profound environmental damage to Ukraine due to air, soil and water contamination from munitions and from the destruction of the Kakhovka dam. Ukraine estimates more than 6 million domestic animals have perished due to Russia’s aggression.
Patriarch Kirill silent on conflict
“Patriarch Kirill has continued to defend the invasion despite mounting evidence of Russian war crimes committed in Ukraine,” said Archbishop Gudziak. “He has remained unmoved by the atrocities uncovered in liberated towns such as Bucha, or the seemingly endless accounts of mass killings, sexual violence, torture chambers, child abductions and forced deportations throughout Russian-occupied Ukraine.”
In addition, the patriarch is “silent regarding the constant missile and drone assaults against civilian targets including homes, apartment buildings, shopping centers, churches, hospitals, schools and grain storage facilities,” Archbishop Gudziak said.
Rather, said the archbishop, Patriarch Kirill has moved to absolve Russian troops of crimes, preaching in a September 2022 sermon that any Russian soldier who dies in Ukraine offers a sacrifice that “washes away all the sins that a person has committed.”
The patriarch’s “stance is far from exceptional,” and instead “appears to be broadly representative of the mood in today’s Russia,” said Archbishop Gudziak.
Russian support for conflict remains high
While reliable statistics in Russia are elusive due to the Kremlin’s repression of free speech, “the available data indicates that Russian public support for the invasion of Ukraine has remained consistently higher than 70% for the past 18 months, according to Russia’s only internationally respected independent pollster, the Levada Center,” said Archbishop Gudziak.
He noted that while 300 ROC clergy members signed a March 2022 joint statement criticizing the war, “not one of the approximately 400 Russian Orthodox Church bishops in Russia has spoken out” against the invasion.
Along with Patriarch Kirill, a number of Russian Orthodox clerics have enthusiastically celebrated the war with religious fervor. Archpriest Andrei Tkachev has used his widely followed Telegram account to liken Russia to “the new Israel” that is “hated by God’s enemies.”
Appearing recently on the ROC television channel Spas, Yevgeny Nikiforov, director of Orthodox Radio and head of the Radonezh Orthodox Fraternity, said Ukrainians “need to be burned” en masse with flamethrower systems.
Such views “seeking to eliminate Ukrainian identity, Church life, and the very right of Ukrainians to exist” have a long historical precedent, said Archbishop Gudziak.
“The Russian Orthodox Church has traditionally been a strong supporter of the secular authorities in Russia. This was true for centuries during the era of the Russian Empire,” he said. “It was also the case after (Soviet Union dictator Joseph) Stalin revived and reorganized the Russian Orthodox Church in 1943 following 25 years of brutal Soviet persecution.”
“Ukrainians are demonstrating their own spiritual values through solidarity,” Archbishop Gudziak said. “Despite the horrors of the Russian invasion, Ukrainians of all faiths and walks of life remain united. They are driven by a commitment to freedom that is the opposite of the intolerance preached by (Patriarch) Kirill.”
