In the media coverage of Ukraine one key factor has received relatively little attention: the role of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) in supporting this unjustified and brutal war.
In the Kremlin's view — and in the explicit words Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, the leader of the ROC — the brutal assault against Ukraine "is a metaphysical battle."
Shockingly, the ROC has given "spiritual" and ideological justification for the most barbaric war Europe has witnessed since World War II.
As Russian aggressors torture and behead Ukrainian POWs, as they rip Ukrainian children from their families and deport them to places unknown under the guise of evacuation schemes, as they engage in atrocities unheard of in our civilized world, the ROC has worked to incite war fervor — even goading the faithful in these most violent efforts.
It should be no surprise to know that Patriarch Kirill was once a former KGB agent tasked with repudiating criticisms of religious oppression in the Soviet Union.
Today, he blesses the soldiers responsible for these atrocities, assuring them that their sins are forgiven: "Sacrifice, in the course of carrying out your military duty, washes away all sins."
Under his leadership, Kirill has ensured that the ROC furthers the geopolitical interests of the Kremlin, strengthening ties between church and state that go back centuries.
The ROC has also backed the Putin government's policies that target and persecute people of faith.
After Russia's invasion of the east and Crimea in 2014, Russian occupation officials targeted religious communities, accusing adherents of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Ukrainian Greek Catholics, Baptists, and Evangelical Christians of being "enemies of the Russian Orthodox people" and "American spies."
Exiled Russian theologian Sergei Chapnin, former deputy editor-in-chief of the Moscow Patriarchate Publishing House and now a professor at Fordham University, has exposed ROC hypocrisy in an open letter.
Chapnin reproaches ROC bishops for being "embittered castle-builders swilling the cocktail of imperial myth, resentment, and unbelievably primitive eschatology. … You stand by a man [Patriarch Kirill] who justifies war crimes and has betrayed the Church. You repeat his words, retell his criminal arguments."
Last November, two of my fellow Ukrainian Greek Catholic priests in Berdyansk were arrested and reportedly tortured. They remain war hostages, their whereabouts are unknown. The main Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Melitopol was shut down soon after Russians occupied the city.
Every Russian occupation of Ukrainian territory from the end of the 18th century — be it tsarist, communist, or Putinist — has led to the banning of the Ukrainian Catholic Church.
Those of other faith communities, at one time or other, have also suffered persecutions and prohibitions.
Seven years ago, Putin ratified the ‘Yarovaya Law' requiring all religious organizations and churches in Russia to register with the Russian government.
Banning "missionary activities" and even answering questions about religion outside of state-approved premises, the law has been used to persecute members of many religions.
Today, the Kremlin is exerting similar measures in occupied Ukraine.
Baptists, Mormon missionaries, Seventh-day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Roman Catholics, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, and Ukrainian Greek Catholics, have all seen their members arrested, jailed, or deported.
We are also seeing this pressure have lasting consequences within Russia and other religions beyond Christianity. The exiled chief rabbi of Moscow has urged Jews to leave Russia while they still can, warning them that rising antisemitism in the country could be used by the government to turn them into a scapegoat for the Kremlin's failures in Ukraine.
The lack of religious freedom in Russia, now being applied in occupied Ukraine, is scandalous and ominous.
We are seeing the results as the state-backed ROC is being used to control, to oppress, and even to kill.
The world is witnessing this as tens of thousands of innocent Ukrainians have died at the hands of the Russians, while the leaders of the ROC and their 90 million members not just turn a blind eye, but also cheer the war effort.
A new report from the Institute for the Study of War focuses on the ROC and its role in the Putin regime and the extent of Russia's attack on Ukraine's religious institutions.
According to the report, at least 29 Christian religious leaders in occupied areas have been arrested or murdered. And across Ukraine, Russia forces have damaged or destroyed at least 500 churches and houses of prayer.
The people of Ukraine, representing all faiths and even nonbelievers, are united to keep their democracy alive against stop this war of annihilation.
It is not too late for ROC faithful to separate from the dark evil of the Kremlin, repent of their sin in seeking to subjugate the people of Ukraine, and stand against Putin's criminal regime.
People of good will all over the world can continue to support Ukraine in its David versus Goliath battle — its epic struggle to protect human dignity and freedom, especially the freedom of religion.
The world's future of peace and prosperity is now directly connected with this struggle in the Ukraine.
America has played a crucial role in saving Ukraine from Russia and the Ukrainian people are grateful.
But more still must be done.
As the ROC blesses a most demonic war, America's people of faith can play a critical role in helping Ukraine confront this evil and stopping it.
Archbishop Borys Gudziak is the Metropolitan Archbishop of Philadelphia of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
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