Orthodox Reflections

Many Western Christians, Orthodox and heterodox alike, are condemning Putin, Patriarch Kirill, and the Russian Orthodox Church over the War in Ukraine. Almost invariably, the most strident condemnations come from those who are furthest left both politically and religiously. In terms of impacting Russian behavior, this is a complete waste of time. Not one Russian leader cares what leftist Westerners think.  

Putin is conducting full-spectrum economic warfare on the West by cozying up to China and India while trying to break the US Dollar. So far, he and his economic team are having some success. The Russian Ruble is already back above its pre-sanction value. Putin’s more popular with the Russian people than he was before the sanctions. Approval of Putin’s actions increased from 69 percent in January to 83 percent in March. The West is facing food shortages and economic recession, while Putin’s Russia is busy building a new financial world order. Putin does not care what self-important Westerners say about him. 

Patriarch Kirill has a vast flock, second in world Christianity only to that of the Roman Pope. 71% of 145 million Russians identify as Russian Orthodox. Patriarch Kirill has the funding he needs domestically. The Russian government is building churches faster than the Russian Orthodox Church can provide priests to serve them. Contrast his situation to that of Patriarch Bartholomew in Constantinople. Patriarch Bartholomew relies on Western support just to survive in a hostile, Muslim nation. His flock is almost completely in the West (mostly the US). The Greek Orthodox community in Turkey numbers only a few thousand. Patriarch Bartholomew works for the US State Department, rich Greek Americans, and the Turkish government – not necessarily always in that order. Patriarch Bartholomew cares a lot about what Westerners think. He has no choice. Patriarch Kirill could not care less, nor is there any objective reason he should. Patriarch Kirill routinely leads vast processions through the streets of Russia. Patriarch Bartholomew, who practically every Western media outlet dubs the “spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians”, has trouble filling a decent-sized auditorium when he makes an appearance in the US.

So if our Western progressives are not speaking out to have impact on the Russians, because none of them care – why are they doing it? Much of it is standard leftist virtual signaling, of course. After all, Ukraine is the “current thing” so all the right people must effusively voice all the right opinions.  

However, Western “Orthodox” progressives are up to something extra special. They are attempting to use the war to further their long-term goal of silencing authentic Orthodoxy in the West.  The war has given them an opening, so they think, to discredit the Russian Orthodox Church, and by extension, traditional Orthodox Christians in Western nations. Progressives are making the most of their opportunity by misrepresenting the true situation in Ukraine, and the Russian Orthodox Church’s response.  Below we discuss five of the most damnable lies put forward in support of the attempted progressive “Orthodox” revolution in the West. 

1. Supporting Democracy is Orthodox Dogma, But Only the “Right” Kind

The leftist, globalist “Christian” view of democracy is summed up below from the Greek Archdiocese of America (under Patriarch Bartholomew) in their “Social Ethos” document:

In many countries in the world today, civil order, freedom, human rights, and democracy are realities in which citizens may trust; and, to a very real degree, these societies accord persons the fundamental dignity of the liberty to seek and pursue the good ends they desire for themselves, their families, and their communities. This is a very rare blessing indeed, viewed in relation to the entire course of human history, and it would be irrational and uncharitable of Christians not to feel a genuine gratitude for the special democratic genius of the modern age. Orthodox Christians who enjoy the great advantages of living in such countries should not take such values for granted, but should instead actively support them, and work for the preservation and extension of democratic institutions and customs within the legal, cultural, and economic frameworks of their respective societies. 

Democracy is a governing system that was unknown to the Church for most of her history. Orthodox Church history is replete with missiological, architectural, artistic, spiritual, literary and even social triumphs that took place under monarchies and various other kinds of authoritarian regimes, sometimes even under conditions of persecution. Thus, it is strange for Orthodox theologians to raise “democracy” to almost dogmatic status in an official document like this. Strange that is, until you read the whole thing and realize that the worldview presented therein owes more to modern Globalist, Neoliberal ideology than to Holy Orthodoxy. It is now incumbent, for some reason, upon Orthodox Christians to “work for the preservation and extension of democratic institutions and customs”, even if this means supporting Ukrainian Nazis in a war against Russia that could end up getting all us nuked.

“Orthodox” progressives continuously tell us that we must support democratic Ukraine against evil, autocratic Russia. One example is from this article celebrating the end of so-called “conservative ecumenism” on Public Orthodoxy. The writer expressly calls Ukraine a democracy while denigrating anyone not on-board with taking sides against a nuclear power as (essentially) an official bad person: 

These days, when nobody in the U.S. but the Madison Cawthorns and Marjorie Taylor Greens of the world have not taken the side of Ukrainian Western-oriented democracy against Russian autocracy, Dreher and other unreconstructed critics of Western liberalism like Patrick Deneen have been walking back their views, yet not without still taking their usual swipes at liberalism’s depredations as they go.

There are many problems with claiming we have a moral duty to militarily support Ukraine, or any other nation, just because it is a democracy. However, there are two which deserve special attention.

First problem, Ukraine is not a democracy.  Ukraine is a corrupt kleptocracy run by horrible men with no regard for human rights or even human life. Here are multiple reasons why:

• 40 percent of the Ukrainian armed forces are paramilitary militias frequently referred to as “Nazis.” These militias are violent, ultranationalist, virulently anti-Semitic (though they give Zelensky a pass for practical reasons), fanatical and brutal. These men hate the Russian-speaking citizens of Ukraine. The best known is the Azov Regiment. These militias have been guilty of numerous crimes against civilian populations since 2014: rape, torture, massacres, using civilians as human shields, and more. 
• Such Nazis serve in the Rada (parliament) and dominant the Ukrainian military / security apparatus at all levels. The West funds and arms Nazis. Who would have imagined?
• Zelensky was put into power via an election that was subsequent to a Western-backed coup that overthrew the democratically elected government. Zelensky’s main supporter is oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky – funder of Nazis who was fingered as paying bounties for the murder of civilians in Eastern Ukraine. His television station 1+1 hosted Zelensky’s hit show, in which he played the president of Ukraine.  Kolomoisky’s media outlet provided security and logistical backup for the comedian’s campaign. Zelensky’s legal counsel, Andrii Bohdan, was the oligarch’s personal lawyer. Kolomoisky is currently in exile, splitting time between Geneva and Tel Aviv. Investigative journalists reported that Zelensky traveled 14 times in the past two years to those locations to see the oligarch. The election of Zelensky will always be tainted by oligarchic money used to trick the electorate into believing Zelensky was a “man of the people” – a reformer who would fight corruption and end the conflict in Eastern Ukraine. Zelensky ran on a peace platform, then embraced war and nationalist extremism.
• Ukraine ranks lower than Russia In The Heritage Foundation’s Economic Freedom Index.
• Ukraine consistently ranks as one of the most corrupt countries in the world (number 122 currently).
• Zelensky recently banned 11 opposition political parties and nationalized all media. Any activities supporting the parties labeled “pro-Russian” are now illegal. The opposition parties largely represent the 17% of the Ukrainian people who are ethnic Russians. This is part of an ongoing campaign to arrest, ban, and neutralize opposition. Zelensky plays a committed “democrat” on TV and social media, but rules with an iron hand. 
• After the coup, the Kiev government sought to suppress Russian language and culture. This is the equivalent of a Canadian government saying only English was the official language of Canada and then suppressing French. It wouldn’t work there. It didn’t work in Ukraine. Zelensky continued the oppression after taking office. So much for “human rights.” 
• Kiev has its own “Orthodox Church” the “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” (OCU). Since its inception, the post-coup Kiev government has been trying to suppress the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) which is self-governing under Ukrainian bishops in affiliation with Moscow. Pre-war, 71% of Ukrainians belonged to the UOC. Since 2014, UOC parishes have been seized illegally. Priests have been kidnapped, beaten, and killed. Two separate bills have recently been submitted to the Ukrainian parliament to totally ban the UOC from operating in the country. So much for “freedom of religion.” 

Christian leaders pretending that Ukraine is a morally superior nation to Russia in this conflict are lying and they know it. This is not a battle between democracy and autocracy. This is a battle between two authoritarian states over issues the average Westerner knows nothing of and cares even less about. 

Second problem, progressive Christians don’t care about actual “democracy.” The average Westerner thinks that free and fair elections are the foundation of democracy. Actually, for progressives, that is not at all the case. If you elect the wrong government, then elections are actually a threat to democracy.

Let’s segue to a nation other than Russia for moment.  A nation that perfectly illustrates the progressive idea of “democracy”. One that is not at war, but nonetheless, attracts more than its fair share of Globalist disdain. Let us discuss Hungary, and its Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Orban’s party Fidesz just won a supermajority in the Hungarian Parliament, giving Orban a 4th term as Prime Minister. Though elected in free and fair elections, Orban is frequently characterized as “authoritarian” and a “threat to democracy.” Why? Here is what one New York Times report had to say about the election:

Orban has overseen a government that combines cultural nationalism, economic populism and high-level corruption. His policies have lifted the incomes of many Hungarians, including in the more rural areas that make up his base, while stoking fears of immigrants and, more recently, L.G.B.T.Q. people.

 

Hungary has not joined Western Europe’s efforts to provide Ukraine with weapons, and he has opposed efforts within the E.U. to ban the import of Russian energy.

Orban has a history of trying to preserve Hungarian national identity, while improving the economic situation of the average voter and protecting the innocence of children from early exposure to sexual deviancy. The horror! Reacting to current events before the election, Orban ran on a platform of keeping Hungary out of the Ukrainian War and keeping its supply of Russian gas intact. Hungarians will not freeze for lack of gas, a distinct possibility faced by other Western Europeans. Even though he is under Russian attack, Zelensky still found time to criticize Orban for not supporting Ukraine in a war in which no Hungarian interests are actually at stake. Orban politely reminded Zelensky that he wouldn’t be voting in the Hungarian election. Unlike many Western politicians, Orban realizes his constituency is comprised of Hungarian voters and not the presidents of foreign nations.  Orban is truly “Hungary first.”

Orban also refuses to surrender Hungarian sovereignty to the EU or any other globalist authority. Orban’s Hungarian nationalism is unacceptable to the EU, which is using a pretext to strip Hungary of millions of Euros to which it is entitled:

The EU Commission will launch the so-called conditionality mechanism against Hungary which links EU funds to the respect of rule of law, commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced on Tuesday in the European Parliament. The commission has been under pressure to trigger the mechanism over concerns of fraud and corruption of EU funds and worries over democratic backsliding. The commission will now send a letter to the Hungarian authorities.

 

“We’ve carefully assessed the result of these questions,” von der Leyen told European Parliament. “Our conclusion is we have to move on [to] the next step.”

 

The timing makes obvious that what she asserts as… “we’ve carefully assessed” – is really more about we reject the man the Hungarian people voted for in their democratic elections.

Hungary is the first country to be singled out under this relatively new “rule of law” EU power.

Rod Dreher, an Orthodox Christian writing at The American Conservative, stated the obvious:

It’s always the same with these people: it’s only “democracy” when people vote the way they want them to. People did “go vote” — and they returned Orban and his Fidesz party to power by margins that even Fidesz did not expect (trust me on this — I was there last night at Fidesz HQ, talking to people as the numbers came in).

Progressives, “Orthodox” or otherwise, do not care about the integrity of democratic processes or even individual rights. They care about policy outcomes. Even though Orban has not invaded anyone or jailed his political opponents, he joins Putin in the anti-democratic “penalty box” because he does not support progressive policies such as:

• Open borders to promote diversity
• LGBTQ-friendly policies, particularly as regards transgenderism
• Population control (abortion, contraception, homosexual sex, sterilization by itself or as part of transgenderism)
• Gender equality / Radical Feminism
• Global Governance over national sovereignty
• Hostility towards Christianity in the public sphere
• Hostility to Western Civilization
• Subservience to global capitalism at the expense of the nation state
• Green Energy and Build Back Better to combat Climate Change

Those policies are actually unpopular in pretty much every country. Few people voluntarily vote against families and in favor of making themselves poorer. Which is why progressives are totally okay with cutting a few corners here and there to make sure the “good guys” and the “good policies” come out on top. 

Hence the popularity of President Zelensky among Western progressives. Zelensky is an authoritarian running a regime staffed with actual Nazis. His government has a horrible human rights record and actively suppresses dissent. He waged war on his own citizens in the Donbass. His embrace of oligarchic corruption is legendary. Despite all that, Zelensky is considered “democratic” while Orban is not. Zelensky has the right policies, which is all that matters. Among his policy positions, he supports the free distribution of medical cannabis, free abortion in Ukraine, and the legalization of prostitution and gambling. In addition to LGBTQ rights, of course. Prior to the war, he opposed the legalization of weapons.  Zelensky took the time, in the middle of a war, to make a video promoting Green Energy. 

No wonder the “Green Patriarch” in Constantinople loves the guy so much. 

Zelensky understands his assigned role is to transform a staid, conservative place like Ukraine into a secular Western nation. His success bolsters the success of Western progressive “Orthodox” whose cause is to transform the Orthodox Church into a post-Christian institution. Imagine how much easier it will be to crush conservatives in the West if Ukraine, the second largest Orthodox population on Earth, can really get down with Gay Pride, trans kids, Green Energy, and hits from the bong?

Hungary (despite not being an Orthodox country) and Russia represent a challenge to the progressive goal of saturating the Orthodox Church and Orthodox societies with “modernity”. Hungary and Russia have shown that one way to confront “modernity” is to stomp it flat. Contrary to Western propaganda, there is nothing “inevitable” about mainstreaming perversion, childlessness, and Green Energy-induced poverty. Progressive “modernity” is a choice that can be rejected. The genie really can be put back in the bottle. These two nations highlight that fact for all to see.

So the globalists hate them, of course, and want to either destroy them or bring them to heel. 

Given the stakes, “Orthodox” progressives will look the other way on anything Zelensky and his government are or do.  Zelensky can never be “anti-democratic”, even if he shot all his political opponents on a social media livestream. The same “Orthodox” progressives will also always present Hungary, Russia and their associated churches as anti-democratic, insane, fascist, and/or heretical under all circumstances.  An example is how progressive “Orthodox” in the West tried to present Patriarch Kirill of Moscow’s Forgiveness Sunday homily as crazy or “unhinged”:

“In order to enter the club of those countries, it is necessary to hold a gay pride parade. Not to make a political statement “we are with you”, not to sign any agreements, but to hold a gay parade. And we know how people resist these demands and how this resistance is suppressed by force. This means that we are talking about imposing by force a sin condemned by God’s law, and therefore, by force to impose on people the denial of God and His truth.”

The Patriarch is not wrong. You can’t join the club if you don’t obey the rules. Obviously, particular reverence must be paid to all things LGBTQ. If you reject the “West” and try to chart your own course, whether you are a military threat to anyone or not, expect to be cast as a villain in the global, secularist morality play and sanctioned or bombed accordingly.

The progressive “Orthodox” promotion of “democracy” has no substance or consistency behind it. Democracy is nothing more for them than a weapon to wield against regimes they don’t like, and a rhetorical construct to legitimize their own quest to transform the Orthodox Church. 

2. Russian Orthodoxy is Supporting a Religious War

Russia is accused of treating the war in Ukraine as a “Holy War” with the Russian Church providing theological cover:

In 2014, when Russia annexed the Crimea and initiated a proxy war in the Donbas area of Ukraine, right up until the beginning of the full-fledged war against Ukraine and afterwards, Putin and Patriarch Kirill have used Russian world ideology as a principal justification for the invasion. The teaching states that there is a transnational Russian sphere or civilization, called Holy Russia or Holy Rus’, which includes Russia, Ukraine and Belarus (and sometimes Moldova and Kazakhstan), as well as ethnic Russians and Russian-speaking people throughout the world. It holds that this “Russian world” has a common political centre (Moscow), a common spiritual centre (Kyiv as the “mother of all Rus’’), a common language (Russian), a common church (the Russian Orthodox Church, Moscow Patriarchate), and a common patriarch (the Patriarch of Moscow), who works in ‘symphony’ with a common president/national leader (Putin) to govern this Russian world, as well as upholding a common distinctive spirituality, morality, and culture.

This is, of course, all a lie.

Putin is a secular president of an officially multi-confessional state. Russian law identifies Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism as the country’s four “traditional” religions while recognizing the special role of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had nothing to do with religion. If you want to know what the war is really about, then just look at the demands Russia has brought to the negotiating table for ending it:

• No nukes for the Ukraine
• No NATO for the Ukraine
• No alliances of any kind and a neutral Ukraine
• Give up any claims on Crimea and the Donbass

There is not one religious demand on the table from Russia. There is also no intention to occupy or destroy Kiev. Russia does not want the headache of occupying people who don’t want to be occupied. Russia is not trying to subordinate or destroy the OCU. Putin doesn’t care about the ecclesiological mess of two competing Orthodox Churches in Ukraine. Or rather, he may care but not enough to drain Russia of manpower and money to do anything about it. Russia is fighting a secular war to achieve a political outcome. Putin is obviously willing to leave Zelensky in power, but with a drastically changed military and political situation codified in a lasting peace agreement. 

This is not a war for Ukrainian survival or religious freedom. 

The Russian World concept has also been horribly misrepresented. As Orthodox priest Fr. John Whiteford explains:

In a search of the official website of the Moscow Patriarchate, I found an article in which Patriarch Kirill summarized what he understands the concept of “The Russian World” to refer to: “Святейший Патриарх Кирилл: Русский мир — особая цивилизация, которую необходимо сберечь,” which in English means “His Holiness Patriarch Kirill: The Russian world is a special civilization that must be preserved.”

 

 

Patriarch Kirill notes that the Orthodox Culture of the Kievan Rus’, which is the common heritage of the Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, and Carpatho-Russians, is not defined by political boundaries, and he has does not see it as promoting the building or rebuilding of any empire. He does see it has something worth preserving, which if lost, would be a loss to humanity. He does not see this as ethnic or racial, but cultural. He also does not assert that this culture is superior to all others, only that it is their culture, and it is worth preserving.

There is nothing in the “Russian World” concept that requires political unity between the Russians and the Ukrainians. The concept also certainly doesn’t require Russia to conqueror and occupy Ukraine. Rather, “Russian World” is a statement of fact that these nations have a common cultural and religious heritage that is worth preserving. Further, this concept does not mean that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church must be subservient to the Moscow Patriarchate. The UOC is already self-governing. In terms of culture and religious heritage, the head of the UOC, Metropolitan Onuphry, expressed similar fraternal sentiments to Patriarch Kirill (even while opposing the war and demanding Russian withdrawal):

The Ukrainian and Russian peoples came out of the Dnieper baptismal font, and the war between these peoples is a repetition of the sin of Cain, who out of envy killed his own brother. Such a war is not justified either by God or by people.

Patriarch Kirill is not calling anyone to a crusade or a jihad or a holy war or whatever language you want to use. Even if he were, Putin would neither listen nor care.  Though the conflict is a purely secular and bloody endeavor, it is entirely possible that Patriarch Kirill and a majority of his clergy really do support the Russian war effort in Ukraine. As we shall see shortly, their support may be entirely moral and defensible before God. 

Regardless of what Patriarch Kirill does or says on the religious front, Putin is focused on obtaining a negotiated solution between secular governments. Putin will kill no more people and destroy no more property than necessary to get the deal he believes is in the best interests of Russia. Russia’s enemy is a neighboring country with a shared history and common religion. Mass murder and occupation are, to say the least, counter productive to long-term, regional stability.  

So why are so many Orthodox Christians in the West pretending this war has ties to Orthodoxy? Because they want to win the culture war within Western Orthodoxy for progressivism by branding the ROC as heretical and a slave to Putin. It is difficult to promote a counterfeit Orthodoxy as long as the ROC is in a position to show the world the real deal. It is also difficult to gain more power for the Patriarch of Constantinople when he is constantly overshadowed by a much larger church. Therefore, it is essential to discredit the Patriarch of Moscow, even if they have to lie to do it. 

3. Russia Alone Is To Blame For This War

Archbishop Elpidophoros said this about the war in Ukraine:

When we contemplate the “role” of the Moscow Patriarchate in this conflict, we must first marvel at the question itself. Should it not be clear that the Church—by its very nature—is opposed to such a fabricated conflict? 

Fabricated, unprovoked,  unjust, unjustified, illegal, barbaric – these are just some of the appellations applied to the War in Ukraine. But is any of that true? Is Russia alone responsible for this war? Actually no, and outside the West, both clergy and laity seem to see that quite clearly. 

Abp. Theodosios is one of the most influential bishops of the Jerusalem Patriarchate. He forcefully disagrees that Russia alone is at fault for this war:

“The political system in the West is crying over Ukraine while it’s the one that created this crisis,” the Archbishop said. “Why do they mourn the victims of Ukraine but not those of the wars they started in various other places,” he asks.

 

“America and its allies destroyed Iraq and committed war crimes against its people, and we are witnessing what is happening in Syria and all the devastations of wars they created in the region,” His Eminence said strongly.

 

“These international double standards in our world clearly show the deep levels of the state of immorality and lack of human values many western regimes have reached,” the Jerusalem hierarch said.

His Eminence is entirely correct. The West is crying crocodile tears over a war it provoked. In fact, over a war that the West knew would be the inevitable result of policies Russia could not tolerate indefinitely. 

• Ukraine potentially joining NATO has always been a red line for Russia. Despite increasingly severe warnings from Russia, this was never formally taken off the table. 
• Ukraine has gotten billions in arms from NATO over the past few years. 
• Ukraine has employed the services of thousands of NATO trainers. 
• On February 19, 2022, at a conference in Munich, Zelensky announced his intention to end the Budapest Memorandum (1994), which prohibits Ukraine from developing, proliferating and using atomic weapons. Ukraine has nuclear plants and delivery systems left over from the Soviet Union. This was not an empty threat. 
• Ukraine employs actual, fanatical, anti-Russian Nazis. 
• As the Biden gaffe made clear, the US has long pursued a policy of regime change in Russia.

The last straw for Russia was the escalation of the ongoing war in the Donbass against Russian speaking Ukrainians. An escalation by Ukraine that could have resulted in a genocide on Russia’s own doorstep. This attempt by Ukraine at ending the Donbass war by force actually began on February 16th. In fact, a very good case can be made that Ukraine is the actual aggressor, and that date was the current war’s true beginning. In which case, the support of Patriarch Kirill for the Russian war effort must be entirely re-examined. 

Jacques Baud is a former colonel of the General Staff, ex-member of the Swiss strategic intelligence, and a specialist on Eastern countries. This is a long quotation from his recent article explaining the true background of the war and its current conduct:

In violation of the Minsk Agreements, Ukraine was conducting air operations in Donbass using drones, including at least one strike against a fuel depot in Donetsk in October 2021. The American press noted this, but not the Europeans; and no one condemned these violations.

 

In February 2022, events came to a head. On February 7, during his visit to Moscow, Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed to Vladimir Putin his commitment to the Minsk Agreements, a commitment he would repeat after his meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky the next day. But on February 11, in Berlin, after nine hours of work, the meeting of political advisors to the leaders of the “Normandy format” ended without any concrete result: the Ukrainians still refused to apply the Minsk Agreements, apparently under pressure from the United States. Vladimir Putin noted that Macron had made empty promises and that the West was not ready to enforce the agreements, the same opposition to a settlement it had exhibited for eight years.

 

Ukrainian preparations in the contact zone continued. The Russian Parliament became alarmed; and on February 15 it asked Vladimir Putin to recognize the independence of the Republics, which he initially refused to do.

 

On 17 February, President Joe Biden announced that Russia would attack Ukraine in the next few days. How did he know this? It is a mystery. But since the 16th, the artillery shelling of the population of Donbass had increased dramatically, as the daily reports of the OSCE observers show. Naturally, neither the media, nor the European Union, nor NATO, nor any Western government reacted or intervened. It would be said later that this was Russian disinformation. In fact, it seems that the European Union and some countries have deliberately kept silent about the massacre of the Donbass population, knowing that this would provoke a Russian intervention.

 

At the same time, there were reports of sabotage in the Donbass. On 18 January, Donbass fighters intercepted saboteurs, who spoke Polish and were equipped with Western equipment and who were seeking to create chemical incidents in Gorlivka. They could have been CIA mercenaries, led or “advised” by Americans and composed of Ukrainian or European fighters, to carry out sabotage actions in the Donbass Republics.

 

In fact, as early as February 16, Joe Biden knew that the Ukrainians had begun intense shelling the civilian population of Donbass, forcing Vladimir Putin to make a difficult choice: to help Donbass militarily and create an international problem, or to stand by and watch the Russian-speaking people of Donbass being crushed.

 

If he decided to intervene, Putin could invoke the international obligation of “Responsibility To Protect” (R2P). But he knew that whatever its nature or scale, the intervention would trigger a storm of sanctions. Therefore, whether Russian intervention were limited to the Donbass or went further to put pressure on the West over the status of the Ukraine, the price to pay would be the same. This is what he explained in his speech on February 21. On that day, he agreed to the request of the Duma and recognized the independence of the two Donbass Republics and, at the same time, he signed friendship and assistance treaties with them.

 

The Ukrainian artillery bombardment of the Donbass population continued, and, on 23 February, the two Republics asked for military assistance from Russia. On 24 February, Vladimir Putin invoked Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, which provides for mutual military assistance in the framework of a defensive alliance.

 

In order to make the Russian intervention seem totally illegal in the eyes of the public, Western powers deliberately hid the fact that the war actually started on February 16. The Ukrainian army was preparing to attack the Donbass as early as 2021, as some Russian and European intelligence services were well aware.

 

In his speech of February 24, Vladimir Putin stated the two objectives of his operation: “demilitarize” and “denazify” the Ukraine. So, it was not a question of taking over Ukraine, nor even, presumably, of occupying it; and certainly not of destroying it.

 

The dramatic developments we are witnessing today have causes that we knew about but refused to see:

• on the strategic level, the expansion of NATO (which we have not dealt with here);
• on the political level, the Western refusal to implement the Minsk Agreements;
• operationally, the continuous and repeated attacks on the civilian population of the Donbass over the past years and the dramatic increase in late February 2022.

In other words, we can naturally deplore and condemn the Russian attack. But WE (that is: the United States, France and the European Union in the lead) have created the conditions for a conflict to break out. We show compassion for the Ukrainian people and the two million refugees. That is fine. But if we had had a modicum of compassion for the same number of refugees from the Ukrainian populations of Donbass massacred by their own government and who sought refuge in Russia for eight years, none of this would probably have happened.

Archbishop Elpidophoros is often rumored to be the next Patriarch of Constantinople. It beggars the imagination that His Eminence would not know about the thousands of victims in the Donbass since 2014, nor about the serious escalation of the military situation in mid-February. Sure the Western propaganda is thick and furious, but if we can find the truth so can an Archbishop. 

The difference is that we want to know the truth to hold our own Western governments accountable for causing this war. Archbishop Elpidophoros does not want to know the truth. He is only interested in delegitimizing the Russian Orthodox Church. Without the ROC, the Archbishop can have his gay pride liturgies, his pro-abortion politics, and his ruminations on “many paths to God” with less fear of contradiction. He also can solidify the “power” of Constantinople, a throne he hopes to sit on some day. 

4. The “West” Are the Good Guys Who Care About People

As Archbishop Theodosios made clear, the West is populated with hypocrites. The US and its allies reserve the right to destroy any one, any where, any time for any reason. When going to war, the US and its allies employ devastating, unrestrained force that has killed millions around the globe. There are no rules or war crimes trials for Western leaders – no matter the cost of their “interventions” in human lives and suffering.

Given America’s history, if Mexico had behaved the way Ukraine did, the US would have destroyed it completely. That is the Western way of war – complete annihilation. If you objectively ignore fake war crimes like the Bucha “massacre” and focus on the reality of the war, you will quickly see that Russia is being quite restrained in its operations. Given its relatively limited aims, that makes total sense. 

Western hypocrisy is a big reason so many of the “Global South” countries are refusing to sanction Russia.  Many of these nations have felt the personal sting of Western bombing and/or sanctions. The same applies to non-Western Orthodox Churches like Antioch and Jerusalem. The Patriarch of Constantinople and Western politicians like to pretend that Russia and the ROC are internationally isolated. That is absolutely not true. 

There is an even deeper hypocrisy than simply decrying every move Russia makes while ignoring the West’s past war crimes. Western (NATO and EU) nations have done more than just encourage Ukraine to act recklessly in regards to its bigger, more powerful neighbor. After Russia finally reacted, instead of seeking peace, the West is actively prolonging the conflict for its own goals. The West keeps feeding money, weapons and supplies to the Ukrainians to keep them fighting a hopeless war from which they can derive no benefit. While they die, the US openly admits it wants to “bleed” Putin and destroy Russia economically in the hopes of stimulating a regime change. To accomplish its goals, the West is willing to fight to the last Ukrainian. 

This is from the same article referenced earlier from Colonel Jacques Baud:

On February 27, the Ukrainian government agreed to enter into negotiations with Russia. But a few hours later, the European Union voted a budget of 450 million euros to supply arms to the Ukraine, adding fuel to the fire. From then on, the Ukrainians felt that they did not need to reach an agreement. The resistance of the Azov militia in Mariupol even led to a boost of 500 million euros for weapons.

 

In Ukraine, with the blessing of the Western countries, those who are in favor of a negotiation have been eliminated. This is the case of Denis Kireyev, one of the Ukrainian negotiators, assassinated on March 5 by the Ukrainian secret service (SBU) because he was too favorable to Russia and was considered a traitor. The same fate befell Dmitry Demyanenko, former deputy head of the SBU’s main directorate for Kiev and its region, who was assassinated on March 10 because he was too favorable to an agreement with Russia—he was shot by the Mirotvorets (“Peacemaker”) militia. This militia is associated with the Mirotvorets website, which lists the “enemies of Ukraine,” with their personal data, addresses and telephone numbers, so that they can be harassed or even eliminated; a practice that is punishable in many countries, but not in the Ukraine. The UN and some European countries have demanded the closure of this site—but that demand was refused by the Rada [Ukrainian parliament].

Signing off on the murder of peace negotiators. Even for the West, that has to be a new low. 

This is all deeply immoral. The only way through this crisis is a ceasefire followed by good faith negotiations. An agreement must be reached that ends hostilities forever, and not merely one that sets the conditions for the next war. All the focus on Russia blinds Western Christians to our own culpability in first igniting and then prolonging a useless war. Ukraine is not in danger of being absorbed into Russia. This should not be a fight to the finish.

Focusing only on Russia’s sins also gives Westerners an invalid sense of their own moral superiority, while putting the ROC intentionally in a bad light. The progressives exploit Western moral smugness to pass off their “counterfeit” Orthodoxy as the true faith, and not that “nationalist” one practiced in Russia by those barbarians. 

While Russia may not listen to us, perhaps our own leaders might? Everyone should be saying loudly and clearly: The West’s continued funding of this war (and the Nazis who fight on behalf of Ukraine) is totally immoral. We, the West, must get out of the way and let the war end. Now!

5. Sanctions Are a Virtuous Response 

We have read dozens of articles from Orthodox and non-Orthodox theologians, pastors, priests, bishops, etc. about the war. All of them, so far, have focused on condemning Russia and the ROC. At no point do any of these esteemed personages ever point out how much the sanctions regime is hurting the average Westerner. 

The most important thing to remember for Christians, Orthodox or otherwise, is that sanctions always hurt the poor and middle class the most. That includes millions of children and senior citizens on fixed incomes. We just went through years of moralizing by clergy / theologians on wearing masks, closing churches, limiting attendance, changing liturgical practices, and enforcing social distancing to protect “the least of these” from COVID-19.  Where are all these “wear a mask” servants of God as we face food shortages, fuel shortages, a lack of many basic necessities, possible starvation in places heavily dependent on imported food and fertilizers, ruinous inflation, shortages of manufacturing raw materials, massive jobs losses, millions sliding into poverty, the possible end of the current world financial system, and the largest drop in standard of living ever recorded? Are they advocating for their flocks? Not at all. They are focused on condemning Russians who don’t care, while studiously ignoring the ruination wrought by our own governing elite even as they plot to overthrow Christ’s Church.

Praying for peace and an end to this terrible war is right and just. But everyone, clergy and laity alike, needs to pray also for our own people who are going to suffer more and more as the sanctions continue. When will our clergy notice the suffering right in front of them? Hopefully before another 20 to 30% of their flocks have quit in utter despair and disgust.

It is perfectly okay to not like Putin. I don’t much care for him myself. There are also many questions in my mind about Patriarch Kirill and his seemingly extravagant lifestyle. This war can’t end soon enough, and it is sickening that it ever happened to begin with. As Christians, however, we must tell the complete truth about what is happening and who is responsible. We must also support the authentic teachings of the Orthodox Church, and not let the innovators deprive us of the true faith in the West through their deceit. 

Vassily is a member of the OCA with mixed Ukrainian and Russian parentage