Russian Orthodox Church calls invasion of Ukraine "holy war", Ukrainian church reacts

The World Russian People's Council led by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow has adopted an "order" that refers to the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a "holy war" and states that "the entire territory of present-day Ukraine should be included in the area of Russia's exclusive influence". The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which has historically been linked to the Moscow Patriarchate, has dissociated itself from such statements.

Source: website of the Moscow Patriarchate; Radio Liberty; Department for External Church Relations of the UOC; Metropolitan Yevstratii Zoria, spokesperson for the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU)

Details: Radio Liberty journalists reported that the Patriarchate’s document is not formally related to the Russian Orthodox Church, but many Russian church hierarchs and public figures associated with the church are participating in the council.

The document was approved during a conciliar congress held on 27 March in Moscow and chaired by Patriarch Kirill.

In it, the war in Ukraine is described as "a new stage in the national liberation struggle of the Russian people against the criminal Kyiv regime and the collective West behind it, which is being waged in the lands of Southwestern Russia", and from a "spiritual and moral point of view", it is "a Holy War in which Russia and its people, defending the single spiritual space of Holy Russia, fulfil the mission of the Restrainer, who protects the world against the onslaught of globalism and the victory of the West, which has fallen into Satanism".  [The Restrainer is mentioned in 2 Thess 2: 6-7 as holding back the Antichrist until the end times – ed.]

The document also explains the concept of the Russian world (Russky Mir), describing its boundaries as wider than the state borders of "both the current Russian Federation and the great historical Russia".

The document also refers to the "triunity of the Russian people" and claims that Belarusians and Ukrainians "should be recognised only as sub-ethnic groups of the Russians".

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church reacted to the Russian statement by distancing itself from the ideology of the Russian world.

Quote from the UOC: "The Ukrainian Orthodox Church does not support and dissociates itself from the ideology of the Russian world. Moreover, our Church’s attitude to this idea has long been publicly expressed by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufrii of Kyiv and All Ukraine: ‘We are not building any Russian world, we are building God's world’."

Details: The UOC says the statement that the so-called special military operation (as the Russians call the war in Ukraine) is a "holy war" contradicts the basic principles of Christian morality.

Metropolitan Yevstratii, the spokesperson for the autocephalous OCU, wrote on Facebook following the council in Moscow that "the structure of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine, led by Metropolitan Onufrii, perfectly resembles a person who is suffering from domestic violence but is unable to break free from their abuser".

Quote from Yevstratii: "They are afraid of their [the Russians’ – ed.] threats and persecution, afraid to 'leave home', that is, to leave the Moscow Patriarchate system, because they will be 'left out on the street' – 'without canonicity'. They are afraid of their connections, lawyers, money, and influence.

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