The Kremlin is attempting to justify its protracted war against Ukraine by using long standing false narratives that the “Ukrainian government suppresses religious freedoms.”
This is stated in a report by analysts from the Institute for the Study of War.
Thus, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on April 22 at an Easter reception at the Foreign Ministry that one of Russia’s war aims in Ukraine is to protect the “honor and dignity” of Russian citizens, including their right to use the Russian language and practice the Orthodox faith. Lavrov claimed that Ukraine has been persecuting the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate for more than ten years and accused the Ukrainian government of “seizing churches and attacking clergy and parishioners of the UOC MP.”
ISW emphasizes that the UOC MP is not an independent religious organization but rather a Kremlin controlled element of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
“The Kremlin has long used claims of alleged discrimination against Russians, the Russian language, and the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine as justification for invasion and for its continued refusal to engage in good faith peace negotiations. The Russian Orthodox Church is a notable element of Russia’s hybrid warfare toolkit, including in the Kremlin’s efforts to promote its narratives and Russian nationalist ideology to support and expand Russian influence in former Soviet republics and to justify its military initiatives,” the report states.
Analysts stress that Russia has also carried out large scale persecution of religious minorities, including Orthodox Christians, in the occupied parts of Ukraine as part of a broader campaign aimed at the systematic destruction of an independent Ukrainian national and religious identity.
“Russian occupation authorities regularly carry out arbitrary detentions and killings of Ukrainian clergy or religious leaders, and also loot, desecrate, and deliberately destroy places of worship,” the experts concluded.
Earlier, it was reported that the head of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, praised the efforts of Moscow Patriarch Kirill aimed at supporting participants in the “special military operation.”
As reported by LF, during a meeting with Russia’s ruler Vladimir Putin, Moscow Patriarch Kirill Gundyayev said that “under the Tsar it was all good and prosperous,” because at that time the Church was “part of the state apparatus.” Gundyayev also noted that after years of persecution, “the Lord has once again shown mercy to the Church and to the Orthodox people,” referring to Putin’s rule.
According to LF, in November 2025 Patriarch Kirill Gundyayev stated that military valor is “inseparable” from spiritual valor, and that participation in war may be regarded as a form of Christian service. This attempt to justify war through spiritual rhetoric provoked an immediate and sharp reaction within church circles.
According to Regina Elsner, Doctor of Theology and researcher of Eastern Christianity and ecumenism at the University of Münster, the Russian Orthodox Church has become one of the key institutions of mobilization and propaganda.
Earlier, it was reported that Pope Leo XIV and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I condemned attempts to use religion to justify violence.
