Sad to say, we have come to expect attacks on the Orthodox Faith in many areas of the world. Taybeh, a peaceful Christian village in the West Bank, has been repeatedly attacked by Zionist settlers. Both Christian Churches in Gaza, Orthodox and Roman Catholic, have been attacked with fatalities. Syria is a killing zone for Christians, Druze, and Alawites. The regime in Kiev continues its campaign against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. In Nigeria, 200 Christian villagers were slaughtered by heavily armed Fulani jihadists in July 2025. This is just the latest massacre. All across Africa, Asia, Ukraine, and the Middle East Christians, and Christianity, are attacked, maligned, and silenced.
But anti-Christian slander in Sweden? Multicultural, friendly, innocuous Sweden? Unfortunately, yes.
A Swedish public broadcast (SVT) presenter named Laura Ukaj has compared the Orthodox Christian blessing gesture – the three-finger sign representing the Holy Trinity – to a Nazi salute, stating: “It’s the same as hailing Hitler.”
This statement is not only offensive and incorrect, but potentially extremely dangerous. In the modern world, labeling a group of people as “Hitler” is the same as proclaiming them evil incarnate. Persecution (sometimes violent) frequently follows such inflammatory remarks. Worse. The people carrying out the persecution feel absolutely justified in doing so. As pointed out in our article on The Open Society:
If it’s assumed that the only options are “the open society or Auschwitz” then maintaining zero tolerance for the perceived values of the closed society is functionally a moral commandment.
Orthodoxy is frequently correlated with so-called “strong gods” which are actually necessary to hold societies together: strong truth claims, strong moral codes, strong relational bonds, strong communal identities and connections to place and past. These are “closed society” values which, according to the post-war consensus, risk bringing back Hitler. Only “open society” values such as unlimited immigration, LGBTQ+ rights, abortion, secularization, sexual liberation, etc. are permissible lest we resurrect the Führer from his grave.
Orthodox Christians cannot let this pass. Orthodoxy is not only incompatible with NAZI ideology, but also millions of faithful Orthodox Christians died to defeat it. This slander, and others like it, is nothing more than an attempt to turn average people against the Orthodox Church, which far too many of them simply do not understand.
To defend the Orthodox Faith, Tijana Ivkovića has organized a petition, now with 500 signatures, asking SVT to distance itself from this statement and end all collaboration with the presenter, Laura Ukaj.
So far, SVT has refused to respond. However, this is the kind of issue in which petitions can be very effective. Media companies do not like negative publicity. Let’s give them more than they can handle.
Sign the petition here: https://chng.it/Yf78vnymfV
For further context, documentation, and direct testimony, please contact petition initiator Tijana Ivković at tijanaivko@gmail.com.
https://spzh.eu/en/zashhita-very/89097-cases-of-metropolitan-arseniy-and-mindich-a-tale-of-two-justices
Metropolitan Arseniy and “Mindichgate”: A Tale of Two Justices
18 November 2025
When corrupt officials are granted bail, but a bishop remains behind bars, the world should be asking: for whom does the law in Ukraine actually work?
On 18 November 2025, another court hearing is scheduled for His Eminence Metropolitan Arseniy of Sviatohirsk to consider a change of pre-trial restraint. In simple terms – judges once again have the opportunity to release him from unlawful detention. At the time of publication, the outcome of the hearing is unknown, but given the current reality, hopes for the bishop’s release are slim.
On 28 October 2025, after a year and a half behind bars, Metropolitan Arseniy was finally granted release on bail of 1.5 million hryvnias. Yet this decision turned into a tragic parody of justice: he was released for literally a few minutes – only to be immediately rearrested on new charges. The court then sent him back to detention, but this time “without the right to post bail.”
It is worth recalling that the bishop is being kept in extremely harsh conditions. The cells in the detention center are freezing. Moreover, he is severely ill and urgently needs heart surgery. He has no access to adequate medical care or even the necessary medication – a dangerous situation for someone with chronic illnesses and rapidly deteriorating health. During one recent hearing, his blood pressure spiked to 200/110, and hospitalization was required. Yet the court demanded that he be returned to his cell, refusing any form of bail.
Even if this were about a serious criminal, such treatment could hardly be called humane. All the more so when it concerns a clergyman who has committed no crime and who has spent years serving the Ukrainian people.
The humanitarian mission of Sviatohirsk LavraThroughout the war, Sviatohirsk Lavra has played a vital humanitarian role – and not in words, but in real, tangible assistance.
The monastery has become a place where thousands of refugees and war-affected civilians receive food, essentials and, for hundreds, shelter and safety.
In just the past several months alone, the Lavra has received hundreds of tons of humanitarian aid from various UOC eparchies. This help is indispensable – the Lavra has long become a haven for displaced people from all across Donbas. The monastery shelters refugees, provides them with housing and food, and supports volunteers whose work is centered around the Lavra.
All of this is concrete aid to the suffering people of Ukraine – people abandoned by the state and left on the brink of survival. And such help is especially precious during wartime.
“Mindichgate”To fully understand the contrast, one must grasp the scale of the corruption scheme uncovered by law enforcement – the scheme investigators named “Operation Midas.” It is directly linked to the state enterprise Energoatom and to one of President Zelensky’s closest associates, Timur Mindich.
According to NABU and SAPO, the mechanics of the scheme were straightforward:
• Contractors seeking to work with Energoatom were required to pay 10–15% kickbacks. Those who refused were threatened with blocked payments or removal from the supplier list.
• Procurement and staffing were controlled not by official Energoatom managers but by shadow figures – insiders with no formal positions who ran the business through a “back office.”
• Money flowed through a sophisticated network of cash, foreign accounts, cryptocurrency and offshore structures.
• Part of the scheme operated abroad, including transactions linked to the United States, Moscow and other jurisdictions.
• NABU described the group as a “high-level criminal organization” with serious influence over a strategic enterprise and the national energy sector.
According to investigators, the criminal network stole at least 100 million dollars – and likely far more, as NABU hinted. And this entire scheme operated under martial law, which gave the perpetrators even more opportunity.
Even the most indifferent observer understands what this means: members of this group, who enriched themselves on money meant for protecting ordinary citizens, are nothing short of marauders. Accordingly, they should be punished with the full severity of the law.
But as we will see – reality is quite different.
Bail and the release of the suspectsOn 13 November 2025, the High Anti-Corruption Court granted bail to two members of Mindich’s “back office”:
Lesia Ustymenko (bail of 25 million UAH) and Liudmyla Zorina (bail of 12 million UAH).
Almost immediately, a company with a charter capital of just 1,000 hryvnias (20 dollars) appeared and posted the 37 million hryvnias required. As a result, Ustymenko and Zorina walked free within twenty-four hours.
Formally, they face restrictions – electronic bracelets, a ban on leaving the country, and a prohibition on leaving Kyiv region without permission. But the key point is: they are free.
People implicated in massive wartime looting can now live comfortably and prepare their defense. This starkly illustrates that Ukrainian justice easily releases those involved in major corruption schemes, yet keeps a clergyman – a man who has dedicated his life to helping people – behind bars for years.
The striking contrastWe are not exaggerating; we are stating the obvious: comparing Metropolitan Arseniy’s case and the Mindich case reveals the moral choices Ukraine’s state and judicial system are making.
Metropolitan Arseniy remains in pre-trial detention, denied bail, while those who stole millions enjoy freedom under minimal supervision and can prepare their defense.
Meanwhile, Sviatohirsk Lavra continues to be a refuge for the displaced – a center of mercy in a region abandoned by the state. Even as the government turns its back on people, the Lavra continues to help them. The corruption group, by contrast, drained resources from the state, likely depriving Ukrainians of the most basic necessities – light and heat.
This is why the contrast between these two cases, these two approaches, speaks louder about the moral character of “statesmen” than any thousand words ever could.
Freedom of religion?Today’s Ukraine is a country where one can easily end up behind bars simply for preaching or for performing the duties of a priest. Being a believer is dangerous – not only physically, but legally. Belonging to the Church is now a real reason for persecution. Such developments should ring alarm bells among our “Western partners.”
Likewise, we – ordinary believers – cannot remain passive. In addition to prayer, we must organize and support the legal defense of the Church, thoroughly publicize all violations of our rights and freedoms. We must defend ourselves – trusting in God’s help and acting within the law.
Because when an Orthodox hierarch who has devoted his life to serving God and people is imprisoned, while corrupt officials walk free, then remaining silent is as much a crime as covering for those who steal from their own nation.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/z4gyWuAkKcs
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/s24h6Zt1K4A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTCztmPEAVk&t=15s
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/t9qMF8AnL5M
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/LKBGgmjQmeE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ti9_PRGbXc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEYV1zPaK7Q&t=3s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvcN2TM0MVw&t=5s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXfW5oqD8Zs
https://spzh.eu/en/news/89021-novynskyi-zelensky-has-no-moral-right-to-remain-president
https://spzh.eu/en/zashhita-very/88895-when-conscience-of-nation-is-put-on-pause-or-why-the-righteous-must-suffer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ6WV2oNOCg
https://spzh.eu/en/news/88850-authorities-allow-metropolitan-arseniy-to-hold-his-first-service-in-15-years
Authorities allow Metropolitan Arseniy to hold his first service in 1.5 years The Metropolitan of Sviatohirsk served a memorial service for his spiritual father, Bishop Alipiy, ahead of another court hearing. On Sunday, November 2, 2025, Metropolitan Arseniy of Sviatohirsk celebrated his first service in a year and a half of confinement. In Dnipro’s St. Seraphim Church, the abbot of Sviatohirsk Lavra held a memorial service for his spiritual mentor – Schema-Archbishop Alipiy (Pohrebniak), who reposed four years earlier, on November 2, 2021. The day before, the defense attorneys had agreed with the judge that the next hearing on the preventive measure would begin no earlier than 12:00, since Sunday morning is when believers attend church. However, it was later learned that the session had been scheduled for 10:00, preventing the hierarch from serving the Divine Liturgy. Before the memorial service, Metropolitan Arseniy addressed the faithful with his first archpastoral word since his imprisonment. He shared his memories of the ever-memorable Bishop Alipiy, calling him a man of spiritual discernment and foresight. The Metropolitan recalled one incident when a woman came to Bishop Alipiy with seemingly insoluble problems. “I was then a young hieromonk and wondered: ‘This really is a hopeless situation! What will Vladyka say?’” Metropolitan Arseniy recounted. “Vladyka listened and then calmly said: ‘Well, my dear, in your case we will turn to the most reliable and proven experience – to prayer.’ Only a man of prayer could say such words, whose own prayer bore real fruit in people’s lives,” the hierarch noted. He also spoke about the traditional Orthodox attitude toward prayer for the departed, quoting old priests: “It’s interesting to pray for the reposed – you pray for them, and you feel their prayer in return.” “That’s why on parental Saturdays the churches used to be filled to the brim. It wasn’t just about remembrance – it was a spiritual communion between us, who came to the church, and our departed relatives, who at that moment were praying for us,” the Metropolitan explained. He recalled that in his native village, even people who had survived war and famine, having lost loved ones, always filled the churches on parental Saturdays: “They were all hard-working country folk, but on those days the temples were as crowded as on Pascha.” At the end of the service, Metropolitan Arseniy asked everyone to pray for the ever-memorable Schema-Archbishop Alipiy. Concelebrating with him were the parish rector, Archpriest Oleksandr, Hieromonk Ioann, and other clergy. This memorial service became a testimony that even under the harshest circumstances, Metropolitan Arseniy remains faithful to his pastoral calling. Recall that on October 28, 2025, after a year and a half in pre-trial detention, Metropolitan Arseniy was released on bail but was immediately rearrested. Since October 30, daily hearings have been held in Dnipro’s Sobornyi District Court on the choice of preventive measure in a second criminal case against him (under Article 436-2 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code). The prosecution insists that the hierarch be returned to custody. His lawyers argue that further detention would endanger the life of the seriously ill hierarch and are asking the court to choose an alternative preventive measure. Earlier, bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church appealed to President Zelensky, asking him to assist in securing Metropolitan Arseniy’s release.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0afeLayEZ3I&t=57s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlmZ7T3-RKs&t=11s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrrarP3d-WQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scxy4pNFC_k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0afeLayEZ3I&lc=Ugw_81IksKuZWuTz83Z4AaABAg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-3xYhSf5nE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSFNWGTFUkw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwnNJpc2wdQ
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rYnQ2GwdFyQ
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mnzLgAuhfjo
Hitler’s relationship with Christianity is murky and off debated. That said it was Adolf Hitler who stood for Western and Eastern high culture and Christ’s church, as official policy, against the judeo Bolshevik and western judeo liberal pincer. He was a hero who has simply been lied about, along with the national socialists, time and again. Obviously its inadvisable to allow the jews of today to make this sort of run at Orthodoxy unanswered, but making wimpy defenses by trashing Hitler will get you nowhere. Organized jewry is going to come hard at the Orthodox church in the next few years. If this type defense is how the Orthodox think they’ll keep the wolves at bay they are quite deluded and will pay dearly for it. “Oh noo we aren’t Hitler the worst man ever” is a losing strategy. Its obvious with this gimmick, tying hand gestures together, that’s exactly what they want said in reply. Then the jew will demand endless proofs that Hitler isn’t hiding in the church. One answer to the synagogue of Satan, just to get the ball rolling, is “F off”.
Just as soon as you think it can’t get any weirder, it gets weirder still.
[…] Swedish public broadcaster bizarrely compares the Orthodox hand gesture used to make blessings to the Nazi salute! https://orthodoxreflections.com/is-the-three-finger-orthodox-blessing-a-nazi-salute/ […]
I suggest this silly tv person read a recent HAARETZ article, written by a Jewish historian:
The Zionist Fascist Wing That Adopted the Nazi Salute
https://archive.ph/VGFUe#selection-211.0-211.53
” Even as Jews sought to flee Germany, an extremist faction on the Zionist right lauded the rise of the Nazis and envisioned Ze’ev Jabotinsky as the ‘Hebrew Duce’ “
What Ms Ukaj said is not only incredibly insensitive and disrespectful but inexcusably ignorant and actually blasphemous. As a professional broadcaster her responsibility is to her audience, which means she better make sure she educates herself first before she starts dragging through the mud the second largest Christian religion in the world by saying something utterly false and incredibly stupid. I don’t think anyone in Sweden would say anything like that about Islam.
My son just told me that “hook-up-culture” Sweden legalized gay marriage as early as 1946. I guess that society is pretty “open”. Open arms, open legs, and now it looks like open brains. Grey matter is falling out all over the place. Sorry to be crass, but if the Swedes love being so open, they should open up some books and educate themselves before they start criticizing things they know nothing about.
Sorry to be dense, but what is “the three-finger sign representing the Holy Trinity?” Do you mean when a person crosses him/herself? The priestly blessing is the monogram of Christ and uses all fingers and the thumb, so … I don’t know what’s being talked about here.
For an illustration and explanation, see:
https://russianicon.com/ic-xc-hand-gesture-origins-and-symbolic-meaning/
“IC XC” Hand Gesture: Origins and Symbolic Meaning
It is well known that religious icons are abundant in a variety of symbols. Colors, postures, vestments, attributes of saints, and other icon elements have their meaning and iconographic canons. In this blog post, we will discuss icon gestures, namely the “IC XC” hand gesture. It is a popular symbol that can be found in many Orthodox icons of Jesus Christ, the Mother of God, and saints. What is its origin? What does it mean to Orthodox believers?
The “IC XC” hand gesture – the initials of Jesus Christ
The gesture of blessing is often seen in Orthodox iconography. It is a special finger fold used by the priests during the liturgy. The “IC ХC” hand gesture has its name for a reason – each finger is associated with a Greek alphabet letter. The index finger is the letter I, the middle finger makes up the letter C, the ring finger and the thumb fold into the letter X, and the pinky finger is the letter C. Thus, this gesture represents the initials of Jesus Christ.
… Blessing gesture symbolism
Besides forming the initials of Jesus Christ, the gesture of blessing conveys Christian doctrines. The three fingers symbolize the Holy Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The thumb and ring finger convey the dual nature of Jesus Christ – the union of the earthly and heavenly worlds. With this gesture, the Savior blesses everyone who asks for salvation, healing, and recovery from ailments.
Blessing gesture origin
It is believed that the tradition of depicting hand gestures in Orthodox icons originated in Rome and Ancient Greece. Oratory with the use of various hand gestures was highly developed in those countries. Some critics state that Orthodox iconographers adopted this tradition and turned it into iconographic symbols. In addition to the gesture of blessing, there are other hand gestures, such as the raised hand (also an important gesture in rhetoric) and the hand near the heart, which is often depicted in the Seraphim of Sarov icons.
The “IC XC” hand gesture plays a central role in the icon symbolism. It is often attributed to Jesus Christ who wants to render the truth to all people. Over the years, the gesture has also entered the liturgy. All priests and clergy now raise their hands to bless the believers in the temple and to draw attention to the important thing, just like Roman orators used to do.
Thanks…but..I know that, and it’s not a “three-finger sign.”