Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill in Moscow was once a KGB operative. The FSB, the KGB’s successor, has built a Russian Orthodox Church inside its headquarters, the Lubyanka. Patriarch Kirill has declared a “Holy War” on Ukraine and the West and told soldiers that if they die fighting in Ukraine, all their sins will be washed away.
Kirill stopped short of offering 72 virgins, but the Russian Orthodox Church’s weaponization of religion would make Hamas leaders proud.
Russian Orthodox priests are blessing a nuclear missile with holy water. The name of the missile is “Satan.”
The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) is so intertwined with the Kremlin that Sweden, Finland, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, and Bulgaria have all taken action against the branch of the ROC inside their borders. Norway and the Netherlands are monitoring ROC property located in key national security areas.
Representatives of the ROC are meeting this week with the White House Office of Faith to discuss the alleged persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP).
The reputation of the ROC precedes them.
As such, a group of lawmakers, led by Republican Rep. Joe Wilson, have written a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi asking her to investigate “Russian Orthodox Church institutions operating within the United States, including the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR)” as to “whether the Russian Federation or its intelligence services have sought to recruit, leverage, influence, or otherwise compromise” their independence.
Laura Kelly from The Hill wrote a great piece about this.
Kudos to Rep. Wilson and his allies for recognizing this threat. But why does the Russian Orthodox Church care about the Ukrainian Orthodox Church–Moscow Patriarch?
Hard to say, given that the UOC-MP made a Facebook post claiming they were no longer part of the ROC as of May 2022. They say they no longer report to Moscow. Yet Moscow defends them at every turn.
Putin himself has made the cause of the UOC-MP part of his peace negotiations with Ukraine.
Russian/Ukrainian oligarch Vadym Novynsky is currently a deacon in the ROC in Zurich. He has hired attorney Robert Amsterdam to tell American policymakers that the UOC-MP is no longer associated with the ROC. Again, a deacon in the ROC is paying Amsterdam to tell people that the UOC-MP is no longer connected to the church in which he is a deacon.
Amsterdam pays a former Democratic Congressman at Nelson Mullins, South Carolina’s largest law firm, some $400k per year to spread his false narrative on Capitol Hill. Russian money is driving this message on Capitol Hill.
Putin himself has made the cause of the UOC-MP part of his peace negotiations with Ukraine. Putin does not take rejection well… if the UOC-MP had actually betrayed Putin, rather than just making a Facebook post, he would treat them like others who have betrayed him.
A dozen or more of those who have betrayed Putin have been defenestrated. None of them were wearing Orthodox robes, so it seems Putin does not view the UOC-MP’s departure from the ROC as real.
This charade would be funny were it not causing the deaths of so many Ukrainians.
With more than 8,000 parishes and 4,600 monasteries around Ukraine, the UOC-MP is an intelligence network.
Ukraine is home to about every faith you can find on the planet. The country is 85% Christian from nearly every denomination – two Orthodox churches, Greek Catholic, Roman Catholic, Baptists, Pentecostals, LDS, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and more. Jewish communities flourished in southern and eastern Ukraine until the Russians invaded and chased them out. Ukraine is also home to Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, and a host of other non-Western religions.
This one church is considered such a serious security threat to Ukraine that 85% of Ukrainians want the government to do something about it.
Only one church – the UOC-MP – has scores of clergy on trial and in the justice system for espionage-related activity. No other clergy from any church, mosque, or temple is on trial in Ukraine. This one church is considered such a serious security threat to Ukraine that 85% of Ukrainians want the government to do something about it.
With good reason. Politico reports that a Ukrainian Orthodox priest led Russian soldiers invading Bucha to the homes of Ukrainians most likely to oppose them, contributing to the mass grave in that city.
I worked with war crimes investigators in Izyum, another city with a mass grave and plenty of horrors. The former Metropolitan (senior bishop) of the Izyum Diocese of the UOC-MP, Yelisey Ivanov, collaborated with the Russians. While Izyum residents were being tortured and buried in mass graves, Ivanov blessed Russian activities and preached pro-Russian narratives to his parishioners. Metropolitan Ivanov fled to Russia when the Ukrainian troops liberated Izyum.
As recently as last summer, the 22-year-old daughter of a UOC-MP church rector was arrested in hotly-contested Pokrovsk for tracking Ukrainian troop movements with a camera she installed in the church dome.
These are the people who are visiting the White House this week.
I have worked for years investigating Christian persecution in Ukraine. It is all by the Russians. Putin has destroyed more than 700 churches and murdered more than 50 pastors and priests. I can get on the phone right now several Ukrainian Christians who have been tortured by the Russians.
Our movie, “A Faith Under Siege,” has been shown on CBN, TBN, and Newsmax and has inspired a series on Angel Studios. Watch Ukrainians telling you their story firsthand.
I have never been able to get an interview with anyone in the UOC-MP, but I have talked to many clergy who have left.
All of them say that the UOC-MP became too pro-Russian, and they had to leave. Many of them had horrible stories that prompted them to leave. Thousands of clergy have left. Twenty years ago, every Orthodox Christian in Ukraine would have said they were part of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that reports to Moscow. Maybe 60% of Ukraine. Maybe 70%. Polls from that era are hard to find.
Today, only 4% to 8% of Ukrainians identify with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that reports to the Russian patriarch. The church has gone from spiritual home to some 70% of Ukrainians to 80% of Ukrainians thinking the church is a national security threat.
And the Russian Orthodox Church is not just a national security threat to Ukraine.
See the original of this article in the author’s blog Tales from World War III here.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.