Abstract
Since 2014, Ukraine has been in a state of armed conflict with Russia, which has cost 13,000 lives and displaced some two million civilians. The conflict represents a complex and peculiar phenomenon for conflict studies—neither side has explicitly declared war, neither side refers to the conflict as a war between them, and the aggressor state denies responsibility for the aggression. This chapter presents the historical and political context of the Russia–Ukraine conflict, considers its religious dimension, and engages with insights of Cyril Hovorun, Miroslav Volf, and Lisa Sowle Cahill on religion and conflict. It studies the theological discourses of the parties in the conflict as an instance of critical introspection and assesses their potential for dismantling the victim–perpetrator binary and creating a space in which peace may realistically be pursued.
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Notes
- 1.
“Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine 16 November 2019 to 15 February 2020.” OHCHR. 12 March 2020. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
- 2.
“Expert told why war in Ukraine is called ATO,” Front News International (14 November 2017), https://frontnews.eu/news/en/17470/Expert-told-why-war-in-Ukraine-is-called-ATO; “Antiterrorist operation or occupation? Calling things what they really are,” Ukraine Crisis Media Center (Kyiv, February 27, 2017), http://uacrisis.org/53096-ato-occupation
- 3.
“Митрополит Волоколамский Иларион: Духовное единство навсегда сохранится между российским и украинским народами,” Russkaia Pravoslavnaia Tserkov, 16 сентября 2014, http://www.patriarchia.ru/db/text/3744471.html
- 4.
A group of priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) condemned the police crackdown, affirmed European values, and drafted guidelines for peaceful opposition. Andrii Krawchuk, “Redefining Orthodox Identity in Ukraine after the Euromaidan,” in Churches in the Ukrainian Crisis, Andrii Krawchuk and Thomas Bremer, eds. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), 178. On priests working among the protesters, see Mikhail Suslov, “The Russian Orthodox Church and the Crisis in Ukraine,” in Churches in the Ukrainian Crisis, 154-5n13.
- 5.
In 2014, the number of registered parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church–Moscow Patriarchate dropped from 12,673 to 12,190 (483 = 3.8%). “Релігійні організації в Україні (Станом на 1 січня 2014 р.),” “risu.org.ua/ua/index/resourses/statistics/ukr2014/55893/ “Релігійні організації в Україні (Станом на 1 січня 2015 р.),” risu.org.ua/ua/index/resourses/statistics/ukr2015/60129/
- 6.
Україна–2014: суспільно-політичний конфлікт і Церква—[Iнформаційні матеріали Центру Разумкова до Круглого столу “Релігія і влада в Україні: проблеми взаємовідносин” 15 травня 2014 р.] (Київ: Центр Разумкова, 2014), c. 31. old.razumkov.org.ua/upload/2014_Khyga_Religiya_5nnn_site.pdf
Other sources confirmed the same pattern. According to NG-Religii, from the spring of 2013 to the spring of 2014 the UOC-MP shrank from 28% to 25% of Orthodoxy in Ukraine, while the UOC-KP grew from 26% to 32%. Cited in Suslov, “The Russian Orthodox Church and the Crisis in Ukraine,” 136.
- 7.
Suslov, 135. A related factor is a much higher level of religiosity in Ukraine as compared with Russia. In Ukraine (population: 43 million), 6.6 million people attended Orthodox Christmas services in 2007; that same year in Russia (population: 143 million), 2.4 million attended Christmas services. Ibid.
- 8.
Cyril Hovorun, “Interpreting the Russian World,” in Churches in the Ukrainian Crisis, Andrii Krawchuk and Thomas Bremer, eds. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), 165–67.
- 9.
Ibid.
- 10.
Hovorun, “Interpreting the Russian World,” 168–70. On the ideological co-optation of religion, Lisa Sowle Cahill observes: “While religion in and of itself may not lead to violence any more than other ideologies, it is more advantageous and thus more tempting for other ideologies to co-opt religion because such a strategy allows claims of ultimacy for what are in reality finite if not sinful causes.” See her review of Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the Roots of Modern Conflict by William T. Cavanaugh (Oxford, 2009) in Modern Theology 28:3 (July, 2012), 563.
- 11.
The Russian-Ukrainian conflict has generated conflicting truth-claims with mutually exclusive versions of the causes of and responsibility for the war. Russian intervention was confirmed by unfolding events. Following months of provocative military exercises on Ukraine’s border, Russia first denied and then officially admitted its annexation of Crimea. Many observers consider the subsequent separatist subversion in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region as part of the same incursion on Ukraine’s sovereignty, rather than as a spontaneous outbreak of civil war inside Ukraine.
- 12.
Cahill, Review, 563.
- 13.
“Святейший Патриарх Кирилл: Главное чудо Сергия Радонежского – он сам,” Russkaia Pravoslavnaia Tserkov 21 July, 2014, http://www.patriarchia.ru/db/text/3693883.html
- 14.
Suslov, “The Russian Orthodox Church and the Crisis,” 142.
- 15.
“Обращение Святейшего Патриарха Кирилла к Предстоятелям Поместных Православных Церквей в связи с ситуацией на Украине,” Russkaia Pravoslavnaia Tserkov 14 августа 2014, http://www.patriarchia.ru/db/text/3704024.html
- 16.
“Митрополит Волоколамский Иларион: Церковь не молчит,” 31.07.2014, http://kadilo.info/obshchetserkovnye-sobytiya/513-mitropolit-volokolamskij-ilarion-tserkov-ne-molchit.html
- 17.
“Митрополит Волоколамский Иларион: Духовное единство навсегда сохранится между российским и украинским народами,” 16 сентября 2014.
- 18.
“Обращение Патриарха Кирилла к Предстоятелям,” 14 августа 2014.
- 19.
“Послание Святейшего Патриарха Кирилла и Священного Синода Русской Православной Церкви архипастырям, клиру, монашествующим и мирянам в связи с 1030-летием Крещения Руси,” Russkaia Pravoslavnaia Tserkov 14 июля 2018, http://www.patriarchia.ru/db/text/5236851.html
- 20.
“Митрополит Иларион: Духовное единство навсегда сохранится,” 16 сентября 2014.
- 21.
Ibid.
- 22.
“Обращение Патриарха Кирилла к Предстоятелям,” 14 августа 2014.
- 23.
Ibid.
- 24.
“Патриарх Кирилл: Я не верю, чтобы на храм мог быть случайно сброшен снаряд,” Russkaia narodnaia liniia 25.08.2014, http://ruskline.ru/news_rl/2014/08/25/patriarh_kirill_ya_ne_veryu_chtoby_na_hram_mog_byt_sluchajno_sbroshen_snaryad/
- 25.
“Митрополит Иларион: Духовное единство навсегда сохранится,” 16 сентября 2014.
- 26.
“Patriarch Kirill hopes Russian-Ukrainian spiritual unity is preserved,” ITAR-TASS 25 February 2014. en.itar-tass.com/russia/720955 Emphasis mine.
- 27.
“Patriarch Kirill calls those who want to ‘tear off southern and western Ukrainian lands from single Russian World’ Enemies,” Religious Information Service of Ukraine (RISU), 14 March 2014. https://risu.ua/en/patriarch-kirill-calls-those-who-want-to-tear-off-southern-and-western-russian-lands-from-single-russian-world-enemies_n67808
- 28.
Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996), 79.
- 29.
Volf, Exclusion and Embrace, 80.
- 30.
Кирилл Говорун, “Богословие Майдана,” translated from Ukrainian by Inga Leonova in Kievskaia Rus’, 12 December 2013 http://kiev-orthodox.org/%20site/churchlife/4975
- 31.
This referred to Metropolitan Pavel of the Kyivan Caves Monastery, who had compared Yanukovych with Jesus Christ. See “Наместник Киево-Печерской лавры УПЦ МП вновь шокировал публику: в разгар противостояния в Киеве он сравнил Януковича со Христом,” Portal-Credo.ru, 22 January 2014 portal-credo.ru/site/?act=news&id=105672
- 32.
The document is quoted in: “Митрополит УПЦ Александр (Драбинко): ‘Нас называют Церковью Москвы, Кремля, Путина, Януковича...’,” Relihiia v Ukraini, 3 March 2014 https://www.religion.in.ua/news/ukrainian_news/25060-mitropolit-upc-aleksandr-drabinko-nas-nazyvayut-cerkovyu-moskvy-kremlya-putina-yanukovicha.html and in: “Януковича предлагают отлучить от Церкви,” Interfax-Religiia, 3 March 2014 http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=54642
- 33.
“Епископ Львовский УПЦ (МП) призвал Путіна вывести войска из Украины,” RISU, 4 March 2014. risu.org.ua/ru/index/all_news/ukraine_and_world/international_relations/55571
- 34.
Ibid.
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Krawchuk, A. (2021). War and Religious Discourse in the Russia–Ukraine Conflict. In: Shafiq, M., Donlin-Smith, T. (eds) The (De)Legitimization of Violence in Sacred and Human Contexts. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51125-8_10
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