A little over a week after the Ukrainian Parliament passed the law “On the Protection of Constitutional Order in the Area of Religious Organizations’ Activities” that was signed by President Zelenskyy on 24th August 2024, the Kremlin’s propaganda machine reaction is taking on ridiculous forms.
First of all, it is important to understand that the ban targets the Kremlin’s religious agent of influence network, in particular the branch of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, not the Orthodox confessions in Ukraine.
The law clearly outlines the criteria for prohibiting foreign religious organizations from operating in Ukraine. The first article clearly states that “none of the provisions of this Law may be interpreted as restricting the freedom to profess religion or belief, the right to observe religious practice and rituals.”
Russian propaganda attacks on Ukrainian law on religious organizations
Reacting to the new Ukrainian law, Russian propaganda has distorted the context of the restrictive legislation, framing it as an attack on religion rather than a response to national security concerns.
Russia has used its usual propaganda tactics to demonize Ukraine, which it attacks and bombards daily, in the eyes of Western societies, and to protect its powerful agent network. Key Kremlin propaganda news outlets Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik have once again taken the lead.
One of the most absurd narratives they are disseminating is the accusation of Satanism. Interestingly, influential figures in the Russian media and military began embracing the topic of Satanism in 2022, recognizing their inability to justify the invasion of Ukraine as a “denazification” mission.
“The fact that Russia has moved on from Nazis to satanists as a rationale for invading shows what nonsense the denazification narrative was in the first place,” said Melinda Simmons, the British ambassador to Ukraine.
For the Russians, apparently, this is not so nonsense after all, as they have recently built a monumental church in black—the Main Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces—containing Adolf Hitler’s cap and personal clothes, which are described as religious relics.
Russian religious disinformation and false accusations
Another narrative is the accusation of totalitarianism, suggesting that the recent ban of religious organizations linked to Moscow is a sign of total repression and a neo-Nazi dictatorship that is undermining religious and democratic freedoms. This is also a typical example of the Kremlin’s hypocrisy, given that Russia itself exemplifies a totalitarian state complete with an imitative electoral system.
The next major narrative in Russian propaganda revolves around religious persecution. The manipulative articles portray Ukraine’s law, “On the Protection of Constitutional Order in the Area of Religious Organizations’ Activities,” as a form of religious persecution. This plot implies possible violence, church looting, and vandalism of sacred places, as well as claims that the law would result in acts of mass violence against Orthodox Christians.
Again, the allegations simply copy the Kremlin’s typical behavior on the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. As of March 29th, 2024, during the full-scale invasion, Russian troops have damaged or completely destroyed a minimum of 630 churches, prayer houses, and other religious establishments in Ukraine.
Furthermore, Russia’s charges of “Soviet-style” religious repression in Ukraine, delivered through its authorities and connected media, are morbidly hilarious given the country’s own historical past.
The Soviet government’s repressions of Ukrainian priests, notably those affiliated with the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), were part of a larger campaign to suppress Ukrainian national identity and religious independence.
One more significant narrative is “the eradication of authentic faith”, particularly expressed by Maria Zakharova and Dmitri Medvedev, suggesting that the Ukrainian government completely gets rid of Orthodox Christianity in Ukraine.
Moscow-linked orthodox church is not the only orthodox church in Ukraine
The claim is that the crackdown aims to replace authentic religious practice with a state-approved, phony form of Orthodoxy, thereby destroying traditional religion and spirituality. This accusation also makes no sense because, as we noted above, the law clearly sets out the criteria for the ban and reliably protects the rights of believers.
The Moscow-backed Orthodox Church is far from being the only Christian church in Ukraine. The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople granted autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, also known as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, on 6 January 2019. The Eastern Orthodox Church partially recognizes the Orthodox Church of Ukraine as the only canonical successor to the Metropolitanate of Kyiv, while the Catholic Church recognizes the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church as the only canonical successor.
This church, with no links to Moscow, was established under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople by a unification council that convened in Kyiv in December 2018, following which Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I granted it a tomos of autocephaly. The unification council merged two Ukrainian orthodox churches, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church—Kyiv Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, into the OCU. On the other hand, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow patriarchate declined to join them.
Russian state-affiliated sources that disseminate the narratives:
Russia Today:
Orthodox Christian Church accuses Kiev of Soviet-style repression (https://www.rt.com/russia/602962-ukraine-orthodox-church-ban/)
Crackdown on Ukraine’s largest church is ‘full-fledged Satanism’ – Medvedev (https://www.rt.com/russia/602974-medvedev-uoc-crackdown-satanic/)
Sputnik News, in French:
Interdiction de l’Église orthodoxe ukrainienne: Kiev se transforme “en un État totalitaire” (https://fr.sputniknews.africa/20240820/interdiction-de-leglise-orthodoxe-ukrainienne-kiev-se-transforme-en-un-etat-totalitaire-1067937602.html)
Pravda, in English and Spanish:
UKRAINE WILL BE DESTROYED LIKE SODOM AND GOMORRAH FOR BANNING CHURCH (https://pravda-en.com/world/2024/08/23/702585.html)
Medvedev: El régimen ucraniano, apestoso y podrido, ha decidido superar el ateísmo del período soviético. La URSS, aunque era un país ateo, no prohibía las religiones ni ciertos credos (https://pravda-es.com/world/2024/08/23/246052.html)
Ukrainian MPs pave way for banning largest Christian church (https://pravda-en.com/world/2024/08/20/697840.html)
War against indigenous faith in Ukraine (https://pravda-en.com/world/2024/08/21/699757.html)
War on worship: Kiev adopts law paving the way to ban Ukrainian Orthodox Church (https://pravda-en.com/world/2024/08/20/697868.html)
Pro-Russian X accounts have propagated anti-Ukrainian narratives concerning this religious subject.
- https://x.com/Panchenko_X/status/1825947211341115710
- https://x.com/JDunlap1974/status/1825934976614846615
- https://x.com/BowesChay/status/1825834672259019124
- https://x.com/jacksonhinklle/status/1825926942681350372
- https://x.com/MyLordBebo/status/1825848638267904098
- https://x.com/Alex_Oloyede2/status/1825859113915490806
- https://x.com/runews/status/1825833958375924170
How Russian church backed Kremlin propaganda and Russia’s war against Ukraine
The adoption of this law resulted from the continuous harmful activities of religious organizations linked to Moscow, including the promotion of the “Russky mir” ideology and the active aiding of its clergy members in the Russian invasion. They were involved in gathering sensitive information, disseminating pro-Russian propaganda, and undermining Ukrainian national unity in times of Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine.
The Russian Orthodox Church has actively participated in blessing the weapons that Russian troops use in attacks on Ukraine. Putin and his TV propagandists even asserted that Russian opponents would simply perish in the war, while Russians will go to heaven as martyrs.
Furthermore, Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill collaborated with the KGB during his 1970s stay in Switzerland. According to declassified Swiss federal records, Kirill was in Geneva, working to influence the World Council of Churches on Moscow’s behalf. The KGB sought to influence the council’s position on the United States and religious freedom in the USSR.
To summarize, Russian invading troops are killing, raping, and kidnapping civilians in Ukraine, wiping out entire cities with carpet bombings, and in these actions the Russian regime clearly has nothing to do with defending Christian values.
Russia aims to monopolize the right to dominate Eastern Europe’s Orthodox confession in a gangster-like manner.
The Russian propaganda machine uses any significant event, particularly the new Ukrainian law, to demonize Ukraine and Western nations that provide support to Kyiv.
