At a Russian Orthodox Church seminary in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, future priests attended a practical workshop on assembling and disassembling a Kalashnikov assault rifle.

This was reported on the website of the Russian Orthodox Church’s Yekaterinburg Diocese.

According to the press release, the Yekaterinburg Theological Seminary has begun its first session for master’s students enrolled in a new specialised programme, “Training Military Clergy and Cooperation with the Armed Forces”.

The programme has apparently also been introduced at other seminaries under the Moscow Patriarchate. The statement says the initiative follows “a decision by the Holy Synod in 2025 in response to a pressing need expressed by the Church and the state”.

Practical training sessions for the master’s students were conducted by career military officers and specialists from a military training centre.

The statement emphasises that the students were introduced to the design and operation of military vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles, and attended a hands-on workshop on assembling and disassembling a Kalashnikov assault rifle.

According to LF, in November 2025, Patriarch Kirill Gundyayev declared that military heroism was “inseparable” from spiritual heroism and that participation in war could be regarded as a form of Christian service. This attempt to justify war through religious rhetoric prompted an immediate and sharp backlash within church circles.

According to Dr Regina Elsner, a theologian and researcher specialising in Eastern Christianity and ecumenism at the University of Münster, the Russian Orthodox Church has become one of the key institutions involved in mobilisation and propaganda.