Russians in Occupied Ukraine War Against Religion

[FlyersFan]

In an attempt to destroy the Ukraine national identity, Russian forces have killed many religious leaders and destroyed 700 churches.  Russians tie their national identity to the Russian Orthodox Church and are trying to cleanse the occupied region of anything that doesn't uphold that mentality.   This, as Putin and the Russian forces portray themselves as being on a holy mission of God.   TWISTED.

Read here about the abuse the religious leadership are having to deal with from the Russian invaders -

PBS - Ukrainian Christian Groups Face Violent Crackdown from Russian Forces

All across Russian-occupied Ukraine, soldiers are shutting down places of worship that don't fit the world Vladimir Putin wants to build.

Read here about how Russian forces in occupied Ukraine torture Christians who are not Russian Orthodox - 
TIME - Russias War against Evangelicals

After they beat Azat Azatyan so bad blood came out of his ears; after they sent electric shocks up his genitals; after they wacked him with pipes and truncheons, the Russians began to interrogate him about his faith. “When did you become a Baptist? When did you become an American spy?” Azat tried to explain that in Ukraine there was freedom of religion, you could just choose your faith. But his torturers saw the world the same way as their predecessors at the KGB did: an American church is just a front for the American state.

Russian Forces Captured, Killed at least 29 Religious Leaders in Occupied Ukraine

Russian soldiers and occupation officials have committed at least 76 acts of religious persecution in Ukraine since the invasion of February 2022 as part of an attempt to destroy national identity, official and church sources said at the International Religious Freedom Summit.
 
Since the invasion, Evangelical Christians, including Baptists, Pentecostals and Seventh-day Adventists, have suffered greatly, Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights in Ukraine Dmytro Lubinets told participants at the summit, taking place in Washington, D.C., Tuesday and Wednesday.
 
“The Russian military has repeatedly threatened the total physical elimination of all Evangelical believers, calling them American spies, sectarians and enemies of the Russian Orthodox people,” Lubinets said at a panel discussion on Tuesday. “To kill a person, to demolish a church, the Russians do everything to destroy us as a nation.”

Two Greek Catholic Priests Taken Prisoner by Russian Forces in Occupied Ukraine

Russia Destroying Ukrainian Churches and Schools

"Many priests, various priests were captured. Or were killed. By the way, they (the Russians) killed 50. And they killed them in different ways. There is all the evidence of how they tortured them," Zelenskyy said.
 
According to the President, the occupiers tortured priests simply because they were supposed to serve Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church. These priests refused to serve the ROC. For this, the occupiers shot them, Zelenskyy noted.
 
In addition, Russia destroyed about 700 churches. "They attacked with bombs, attacked with missiles. And where they entered the territory of our state, they simply destroyed. They set these churches on fire," he concluded.

For those with a subscription to CNN - 
CNN - Russian Religious Repression in Occupied Ukraine

They said we were American spies.  Priests describe Russias crackdown on Evangelicals in occupied Ukraine

Churches Closed and Pastors Arrested in Ukraine

Russia Restricts Churches in Ukraine

500 Ukrainian Churches Damaged, Looted, or Destroyed by Russian Invaders

The Russian military has disproportionately attacked evangelical Christians and “destroyed, damaged, or looted” at least 494 religious buildings, theological institutions, and sacred sites in Ukraine since invading the neighboring nation almost a year ago, according to the Kyiv-based Institute for Religious Freedom (IRF).

[FlyersFan]

Catholic Mass is pretty much impossible in the region of Ukraine that is occupied by the Russian invaders.

The Russian invaders purposely target the churches to destroy, and torture and kill the parishioners and the priests.

Anyone worshipping other than Russian Orthodox, which is really now just the head of a twisted Russian nationalistic cult, are destroyed.

All the while the delusional Russian population believes that they are doing God's Will and that they are the 'good' ones .

DEMONIC.

Catholic Star Herald - Russian Forcs Destroy Catholic Church in Ukraine

Since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 — declared a genocide in two major human rights reports by the New Lines Institute and the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights — Russia has destroyed at least 660 religious sites representing several faith confessions. Clergy and faithful of various denominations have been expelled, detained, tortured and, in some cases, killed.

[sahgwa]

Your articles remind me of this, which is also being fought by the Ukrainians .
Long long ago, in the less stupid times, both countries, being brothers, were under the same mother church, the Russian Orthodox Church.
Zelensky outlawed the Russian Orthodox Church, as he was concerned about any organisation which could undermine his authority in the country.
So he also pissed off a lot of religious Ukrainians a year or so ago:
https://apnews.com/article/zelenskyy-kyi...4877a0004e

Ukrainian Orthodox Church is a smaller group under the umbrella of the Russian Orthodoxy.

https://europeanconservative.com/article...sia-links/

So now Zelensky has official state-sanctioned churches and it's all a big mess.

[UltraBudgie]

Here is a fun article that contains the introduction to Gary Lachman's book The Return Of Holy Russia: Apocalyptic History, Mystical Awakening, and the Struggle for the Soul of the World. What do you all think about it? I haven't read Mr Lachman's screed yet. It might give some perspective.

https://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles...oly-russia

I suppose we could also discuss the OrthoBro movement that seems to be picking up many of the disillusioned right-wing Catholics in the United States. Putin seems to speak to their man-o-sphere. Anyone have thoughts about that?

[FlyersFan]

Zelensky outlawed the Russian Orthodox Church, as he was concerned about any organisation which could undermine his authority in the country.

Yes and no.

AFTER Russia invaded, Ukraine’s parliament has banned the activities of religious groups tied to the Russian Orthodox Church or any other faith group supporting Russia’s invasion.   The Russian Orthodox Church has called the invasion of Ukraine a 'holy war'.  I don't blame the Ukraine Parliament for banning the faux church "Russian Orthodox Church' during a time of war.  They are actively engaged in mental warfare against the Ukraine.  And they are just another arm of the Russian Government at this point.  They have mixed religion with Russian nationalism.   To be a person in good standing in the Russian Orthodox Church, you have to be a hardline supporter of Putin and Moscow.   Even their so called 'saints' can't be called saints unless they were ardent government supporters and repeaters of the Russian government propaganda.

Ukraine Parliament Bans Moscow Linked Religious Groups

SNOPES FACT CHECK - Ukraine Banned Russian Orthodox Church in 2024?

Snopes says this claim is only partially true.   Ukraine did not ban the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which the majority of people belong to.  It banned the Russian Orthodox Church which a very small minority belong to and in which the church has called the war against Ukraine a 'holy war' and has taken a side with the government of Russia.


And none of that has anything to do with the fact that Russia is systematically destroying 700 churches so far ... as well as arresting and torturing and killing people simply because they are worshippers who do not worship at the altar of the Russian Orthodox Church ... which, like I said, is really now just an arm of the Russian government.

What Russia is doing in Ukraine to the religious people and buildings is a crime and breaks international law.

[sahgwa]

Here is a fun article that contains the introduction to Gary Lachman's book The Return Of Holy Russia: Apocalyptic History, Mystical Awakening, and the Struggle for the Soul of the World. What do you all think about it? I haven't read Mr Lachman's screed yet. It might give some perspective.

https://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles...oly-russia

I suppose we could also discuss the OrthoBro movement that seems to be picking up many of the disillusioned right-wing Catholics in the United States. Putin seems to speak to their man-o-sphere. Anyone have thoughts about that?

That is a fascinating topic in it's own right, and worthy of it's own thread but it makes sense to discuss it here too.

I think the Orthodox movement speaking to disillusioned Catholics, and Conservatives in general, speaks less to anything about Putin and being 'Pro Russia' and more to speaking to these people's need for a more traditional Christianity.
They have a need for a religion that they see is more in line with traditional Christian teaching, which is anti-banking, anti-homosexual, and at it's heart, anti-political.  

They see the Catholic church in the West being co opted by Progressivist and Marxist tendencies like the (in their eyes faux) Pope, Argentinian Francis and his support for all sort of globalist 'nonsense' as very anti Catholic. In much the same way they say Macron is pro globalist and anti-France.

[sahgwa]

Yes and no.

AFTER Russia invaded, Ukraine’s parliament has banned the activities of religious groups tied to the Russian Orthodox Church or any other faith group supporting Russia’s invasion.   The Russian Orthodox Church has called the invasion of Ukraine a 'holy war'.  I don't blame the Ukraine Parliament for banning the faux church "Russian Orthodox Church' during a time of war.  They are actively engaged in mental warfare against the Ukraine.  And they are just another arm of the Russian Government at this point.  They have mixed religion with Russian nationalism.   To be a person in good standing in the Russian Orthodox Church, you have to be a hardline supporter of Putin and Moscow.   Even their so called 'saints' can't be called saints unless they were ardent government supporters and repeaters of the Russian government propaganda.

Ukraine Parliament Bans Moscow Linked Religious Groups

SNOPES FACT CHECK - Ukraine Banned Russian Orthodox Church in 2024?

Snopes says this claim is only partially true.   Ukraine did not ban the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which the majority of people belong to.  It banned the Russian Orthodox Church which a very small minority belong to and in which the church has called the war against Ukraine a 'holy war' and has taken a side with the government of Russia.


And none of that has anything to do with the fact that Russia is systematically destroying 700 churches so far ... as well as arresting and torturing and killing people simply because they are worshippers who do not worship at the altar of the Russian Orthodox Church ... which, like I said, is really now just an arm of the Russian government.

What Russia is doing in Ukraine to the religious people and buildings is a crime and breaks international law.

You are also missing the point that the Orthodox Church of Ukraine was a department of the Russian Orthodox Church, much as Ukraine was a department of Russia.  
It's all a big mess and there are inflamed tempers on both side, as brother fights brother.  Russia is of course in the wrong for invading Ukrainian territory, but Ukraine is also in the wrong for it's own crimes against Ukrainian citizens who happen to be Russian.