The role of the Russian Orthodox Church in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict
The role of the Russian Orthodox Church in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict

Summary/Abstract: The article analyses the influence of the religious factor on the internal processes of nation-state consolidation in Ukraine and on the causes and consequences of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. The division of the Ukrainian Orthodoxy into three branches (UAOC, UOC-KP and UOC-MP) did not allow the Church to become a consolidating factor in the formation of a nation-state in independent Ukraine and a generator of social transformation. The situation may change for the better aft er the creation of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine in 2018. The Russian Federation and the Moscow Patriarchate (ROC) use the ideology of the “Russian world,” the leader of which in Ukraine is the UOC-MP, in order to implement the imperial policy and to establish in Ukraine the dominance of the traditions of the Moscow Church, as one of the significant factors of cultural and religious influence (paradigm of this cynical influence and dominance). In the hybrid war between Russia and Ukraine, the UOC-MP, along with the Russian minority, is used as the so-called “fifth column.” In order to resist the Russian hybrid war waged in the humanitarian and religious domain, Ukraine should accelerate the process of formation of a nation-state and counteract the Russian “humanitarian-religious” aggression with a clear policy of protection of its national interests. The basic condition for the existence of a political nation-state is its recognition and loyalty to it by the structures of the civil society. This problem is acute and urgent in the case of the UOC-MP, and the Ukrainian state should not neglect it, especially in the context of national security.

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