In the Russian-Ukrainian war, the Kremlin largely relies on religious organizations under its control. The clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) play a dominant role in the religious propaganda around the war.
The activities of this organization are directly supervised by the FSB, writes the National Resistance Center.
ROC’s branch on the territory of Ukraine has so far retained the name “Ukrainian Orthodox Church” of the Moscow Patriarchate. The priests of this denomination refused to mourn the dead Ukrainian soldiers and honor them. Many remember the episode where during the Verkhovna Rada session, attended by representatives of various faiths, the leadership proposed to honor the fallen Ukrainian heroes with a moment of silence. However, only the head of the UOC (MP), Metropolitan Onufriy (Berezovsky) and the hierarchs of this church refused to stand up.
There are many facts that confirm that the clergy of this organization directly contributed to the aggression against Ukraine or was used to project “soft power” through sermons and appeals to believers. Russia used the capabilities of the churches of the Moscow Patriarchate for intelligence purposes before the annexation of Crimea and the provision of weapons to Russian militants in Donbas in 2014. This was repeatedly confirmed during SBU raids of religious facilities under the control of this denomination. They also found Russian passports, pro-Russian literature, “documents” of the occupation administrations and Russian symbols.
Currently, the Russian Orthodox Church, with the assistance of the FSB, forcibly seizes churches and religious complexes not only of the former UOC MP, but also of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church and the Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine. Priests who refuse to submit to the Russian Orthodox Church are subjected to moral and physical pressure from the invaders. Cases of brutal torture of Ukrainian priests and pastors of Protestant denominations were also reported.
More and more, the Kremlin is bringing in clerics from the territory of the Russian Federation. On March 27, under the leadership of Moscow Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev, the Russian People’s Council adopted an “order” in which the Russian invasion of Ukraine was officially declared a war, moreover a “holy” one. This is another stage of strengthening militaristic rhetoric, after Putin’s “re-election”, in order to promote mobilization to the Russian invasion army.
Also this week, an instruction was sent to all parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church regarding the daily “prayer for Holy Russia”. The text of this prayer was first published by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill Gundyaev, on September 25, 2022. This propagandistic prayer is the quintessence of the “Russian world” for the parishioners of the Russian Orthodox Church. It encodes a conspiracy theory about the intention of external forces to divide the “triunite Russian people” and emphasizes the need to unite against an external aggressor and a request for assistance in the actions of the Russian invasion troops.
Therefore, the participation of the Russian Orthodox Church in Russian aggression against Ukraine plays the following roles:
Patriotic propaganda: Clergymen act as patriotic symbols, supporting the idea of the unity of Russia and supporting military actions against Ukraine. They pray for the victory and protection of Russia.
Moral support for the military: Clergymen regularly visit military units, provide “spiritual” support to personnel and discuss military developments, explaining them with biblical stories taken out of context.
Legitimization of military actions: ROC uses its resources to legitimize military actions against Ukraine. They justify the war by protecting the “Orthodox faith, culture and traditional Russian values.”
Religious mobilization: Clergymen call on the faithful to support the military campaign, using religious arguments and images in an attempt to persuade them to participate in the war in the ranks of the Russian occupation forces.
Symbolism and rituals: the Russian Orthodox Church holds religious rites, prayers and public events (marches) in support of the Kremlin’s militaristic ideology and its military actions.
Under such conditions, the population in the temporarily occupied areas of Ukraine should distance themselves from representatives of this denomination. Clerics of this organization should definitely not be trusted with the sacrament of confession. Ukrainian representatives of the clergy and believers will have to form church cells in the underground. To this end, it is worth recalling the experience of the functioning of the Ukrainian church underground during the communist occupation of Ukraine.
