Putin’s Brutal Regime in Russian-Occupied Ukraine
Reflections on Russia and Ukraine
The video highlighted in my last essay, “A Faith Under Siege,” is hard for many viewers to understand. Why would Putin and his military treat their Slavic neighbors with such violence and repression? We need to answer this question. How do autocrats come to power and then build the support they need to stay in power?
In recent decades, all over the globe, a new generation of charismatic leaders are winning elections in democracies and then subverting the institutions that were created to prevent dictatorships from being formed. These autocrats need war to protect their base of power, and most of them create “forever wars” for two purposes: to build their power base by mobilizing their military, police forces, and security agencies to enforce the autocrats’ policies; and to use the protection these wars offer the autocrat and his family to secure the assets they have stolen from their country.
Autocrats are congenital liars who use post-truth tactics to justify the wars they launch. For example, Putin launched a new strategy in February 2022 for ending Ukrainian democracy by invading their country. He claimed that his goal was to stop NATO expansion, but this is true “fiction,” according to the former U. S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Michael McFaul. Putin may dislike NATO expansion, but he is not frightened by it. NATO is a defensive alliance, and it never attacked the Soviet Union or Russia, and it never will unless Russia attacks it first. Here is the key, according to Ambassador McFaul: “Putin is threatened by a flourishing democracy in Ukraine. He cannot tolerate a successful and democratic Ukraine on Russia’s border, especially if the Ukrainian people also begin to prosper economically. That would undermine the Kremlin’s own regime stability and proposed rationale for autocratic state leadership.” Putin will continue to undermine Ukraine’s democracy if he remains in power.
The genocide that Russian forces are committing in Ukraine is staggering, and the West has been silent on these evil policies for too long. When the Ukrainians gathered parents with their sick children in the Ohmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv, a commentator on the Russian Orthodox TV channel Tsargrad described the missile strike on the hospital in these words: “The children’s hospital in Kyiv wasn’t a mistake. . . Such enemies [Ukrainians] cannot be considered human. We must realize – plainly and terrifyingly – that there are no humans on the other side. Not a single one. Our [Russian] missiles do not kill humans. Not a single human. Over there [in Ukraine], here are no humans.”
At the conclusion of the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity in 2014-2015, Russia was able to seize about 7% of Ukrainian territory with its three million citizens. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, it tripled Ukrainian land under its control, and now it is estimated that 5-6 million people – one-tenth of Ukraine’s total population - are living under Russian rule, including 1.5 million children.
News reports in the West focus on the war between Russian forces and Ukrainian defenders, but the plight of the Ukrainians who refused to leave their homes in the occupied zones are forced to cooperate with the Russian authorities. According to Russian figures, 90% of these residents have now been issued Russian passports, which they need to open a bank account, operate a business, or get welfare payments.
In a June 2021 essay titled “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians,” Putin made it perfectly clear that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was intended as a genocidal war. This meant the death of Ukrainian national and local leaders, as well as the destruction of Ukraine’s distinctive culture, identity, and language. Putin claimed that Ukrainians are simply confused Russians with an invented identity, language, and history that a small Western-backed minority are imposing on the rest of Ukrainian society.
All across Ukraine, but especially in the Russian-occupied regions, Russian forces are deliberately destroying Ukrainian historical buildings, libraries, museums, churches and schools – all a part of their effort to destroy any sign of Ukrainian culture and its rich heritage. In October 2024, UNESCO verified that 143 religious sites, 231 buildings of historical or artistic interest, 32 museums, 33 monuments, and 17 libraries had been damaged or destroyed.
One dominant focus of Russian cultural genocide targeted Ukrainian churches and their educational facilities. During 2022-2023, at least 630 religious sites in Ukraine were completely destroyed, damaged or looted. The most concentrated destruction took place in Russian-occupied zones in Ukraine. In these territories, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was liquidated and their social service institutions were banned. Today, there is not a single Catholic priest – whether Greek Catholic or Roman Catholic – remaining in the occupied territories. The Russians seized their church buildings and took possession of the homes of priests.
Russian officials are gradually removing visual reminders of Ukraine’s history in the regions they control, which means tearing down monuments commemorating the Soviet-induced famine that killed millions of Ukrainians in the 1930s. They have painted over the Ukrainian colors of blue and yellow in Ukrainian cities with Russia’s red and blue, and they are putting back the 1,000 statues of Lenin removed during Ukraine’s struggle for freedom. In addition, Russian authorities encourage Ukrainians to flee their occupied regions and, since 2022, have seized their property – huge industrial plants, local bakeries, and homes, in one of the biggest state-managed robberies in history.
All of these repressive actions are sanctioned by Patriarch Kirill, whose relationship with Putin has transformed Russian Orthodoxy into a tool for waging wage and subjugating Ukraine’s occupied territories. By declaring this to be a “Holy War,” Kirill has introduced a new concept into Russian Orthodoxy borrowed from Islam – the “holy martyr.”
The remaining tragedy, which I will discuss in a forthcoming essay, is the horrendous kidnapping of Ukrainian children and the Russian program to militarize these young people and prepare them to join the fight against the United States and the democratic West. The pain and suffering that residents who live in the Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine are experiencing every day needs to be addressed by the Western democracies — and particularly by American Christians.
The Russian playbook makes the case that the West needs to recognize that control of the Ukrainian territory is irreversible and that these regions have been permanently lost to Ukraine. Each week, the Russians are adding to their control of these areas. Stopping the process of Russia’s deepened penetration of these areas must happen now. While the larger war efforts on the part of Ukraine and its allies are important, the Western alliance, and especially the United States, must take advantage of Russia’s current weaknesses and drive the Russians out of Ukraine. This could possibly force the removal of Putin and bring an end to his reign of terror.
What Can Each of Us Do?
Professor Timothy Snyder’s advice: Don’t be a Bystander!
Pray for Ukraine and its courageous defenders.
Host a free screening of “Faith under Siege” with your family and/or friends and talk about what you have learned and how they can get involved.
Speak Up! Let the President and your Congressional representatives know about your views on this subject.
Ask your pastor, priest, or community leaders to discuss this subject and raise the concerns for Ukraine with your community.
Give financial support to humanitarian agencies that support Ukraine, especially for those Ukrainians living in Russian-occupied Ukraine.
Challenge media outlets that support Russian propaganda about alleged persecution of Orthodox believers in Ukraine.
Helpful Resources:
Robert Pearson and Michael McFaul, “What Putin Fears the Most,” (Journal of Democracy, April 2022).
David Lewis, “The Quiet Transformation of Occupied Ukraine,” (Foreign Affairs, January 18, 2024).
Karolina Hird, “The Kremlin’s Occupation Handbook,” Institute for the Study of War (February 2024).
Nataliya Bugayova and Kateryna Stepanenko, “Hiding Russia’s Weaknesses,” Special Report – Institute for the Study of War (May 9, 2025).
Dr. John A. Bernbaum
Writer and Educator
Co-Author with Philip Yancey:
What Went Wrong?: Russia's Lost Opportunity and the Path to Ukraine