There is a “war within the war” being carried on in Ukraine by the Russian Armed Forces, one that gets little attention in the secular press. This is not surprising to me, because I witnessed the same phenomena during my 25 years of work in Russia. After the collapse of the Communist regime in 1991, the print and television media simply ignored the largest community-based network spread all over the country – thousands of Russian Orthodox Churches, as well as Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim faith communities. Little was done to utilize this massive collection of social institutions, which could have been integrated into the process of rebuilding Russian society. The Russian Orthodox Church has a thousand-year history, and in the early 1990s it was one of the most trusted institutions in the country.
Boris Yeltsin’s leadership team and its western advisers did little to partner with these communities, which could have helped so many people who struggled through the economic chaos following the dismantling of the Soviet Union’s centralized economy. This was a case in which religious institutions were deliberately ignored by the Russian elites, American Foreign Service Officers, and journalists and scholars who could best be described as “genteel secularists.”
Once again, the impact of the war on religion is being largely ignored by the press. Western analysts and foreign policy experts are paying very little attention to the deliberate attacks by Russian forces on the churches, cathedrals, synagogues, and mosques in Ukraine, where religious freedom has prospered since 1991. A new report has been published that addresses this blindness. The Institute for Religious Freedom (IRF) was founded in Kyiv in 2001 with a mission to “protect and promote religious freedom and other related human rights, facilitate inter-faith dialogue and church-state cooperation, strengthen democratic foundations and civil society in Ukraine.” IRF has just issued a report – “Russian Attacks on Religious Freedom in Ukraine” – which covers topics rarely described by the western media. Their research has resulted in a detailed analysis of the aggressive Russian attacks on 20 different denominations and 31,000 religious communities that constitute 84% of the religious network in Ukraine. Their study includes Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant churches, Jewish and Muslim religious associations, and various religious and ethnic minorities. The report makes it clear that “Russia would rather eliminate whole cities and destroy the Ukrainian historical and spiritual heritages than accept the right of the Ukrainian people to self-determination and sovereignty.”
It has become evident that one of Russia’s principal military tactics is to destroy Ukraine’s infrastructure. Its missile and artillery targets often are not aimed at their enemy’s military forces, but instead are designed to intimidate the local population and provoke panic among those whose homes are destroyed and who face the winter months without electricity, heat, water, food supplies and needed medicines. But the Russian forces don’t stop here; this dismantling of Ukraine’s infrastructure extends to their places of faith, fellowship, and tradition. As of July 2022, 270 houses of worship, spiritual educational institutions (including schools we support), and sacred sites (like cemeteries and war memorials) were either completely destroyed or damaged. This number has significantly increased in the last three months.
The RFI report that the largest number of churches and their related facilities (108) that have been attacked/destroyed belong to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which has severed its relationship to the Russian Orthodox Church under Patriarch Kirill, one of Putin’s principal supporters. Baptist and Pentecostal churches have witnessed 85 attacks on their facilities as well – and again, there have been many more since July.
This IRF report gives us information rarely discussed elsewhere, and the testimonies by religious leaders from these faith communities is painful to read because of the excessive cruelty of Russian soldiers. A Catholic priest describes how Russian missiles landed on their seminary and damaged windows, walls, and the roof. Then 10-15 Russian soldiers entered the seminary and stole household appliances, office equipment, computers, personal clothes, food, and kitchen accessories. Before they left, they used the chapel “as a toilet.” At a Pentecostal church, Russian soldiers shot at everything (windows, mirrors, and furniture), before stealing a plasma television and other office equipment. When they brutally tortured these religious leaders, Russian soldiers would taunt them: “There will be no Ukraine, forget about it, soon we will destroy all of Ukraine.” This cruel pathology of torture and violence against innocent civilians, which Putin has used in Ukraine, is deeply rooted in Russian history and was implemented by Russians in their Civil War (1917-1921), the Spanish Civil War, the bloody battles of the Second World War, and its tactics in Chechnya and Syria. It needs to be stopped in Ukraine and not ignored by the United States and our western allies.
Some Russian military commanders expressed their amazement that religious ministers and lay leaders voluntarily remained in the war zone to help vulnerable local residents, organize their evacuation, and aid in the humanitarian crisis created by the Russian army. But they could do little to stop the torture and murder of local citizens, as evidenced by the mass graves found in many cities and villages that the Russians left behind when they evacuated. In every city occupied by Russian forces, torture chambers were found, and some of the most brutal Russian army groups were personally given special awards by Putin. There can be no compromise with Putin and his national security cronies, who place so little value on human life. This autocracy needs to be defeated in Ukraine and its persecution of religion must not be ignored by the United States and our NATO allies.