On April 5, in the live Russian religious TV program, an invited Orthodox priest called for burning Ukrainians with fire in response to their protest against the open Ukrainophobia of the UOC-MP. Since the beginning of the full-scale war, Russian Orthodox priests have consistently voiced anti-Ukrainian narratives that are full of hatred and xenophobia.
The Orthodox Church in Russia is a powerful political instrument, historically involved in solving problems of national importance. After the full-scale invasion of Russia, the justification of the war of conquest and the preservation of the positions of the UOC-MP in Ukraine became such a task for Russian Orthodoxy. At the same time, this church does not recognize the fact of the war between Russia and Ukraine, calling it “fratricidal strife”, and does not condemn the crimes committed by Russian troops. Moreover, the Russian Orthodox Church openly calls for the killing of Ukrainians. Archpriest A. Tkachev repeatedly said that Ukrainian cities should be shelled with a prayer on lips, and Ukrainians should be killed. Russian Orthodox priests live on television call Ukrainians pagans, calling for their murder in a horrific way.
With Putin coming to power, the ROC began to perform a purely political function: in order to maintain control over the Orthodox audience not only in Russia, but also in Orthodox post-Soviet countries. Orthodox priests became cassocked propagandists, voicing Kremlin narratives in unison, and Russian Orthodox churches in European countries became branches of the Russian special services. After the start of a full-scale war with Ukraine, they stepped up their activities aimed at propaganda and the collection of relevant information. As Russia suffers more and more defeats on the battlefield, the rhetoric of the Russian Orthodox Church towards Ukrainians becomes openly xenophobic, full of hatred.
The political system created by Putin envisages a total confrontation with the West, where the church is also used as an instrument of hybrid aggression. Moscow’s priests act as spies in the EU countries, carrying out orders from the Kremlin. This is unacceptable in the context of Putin’s challenge to the entire civilized world. The Russian Orthodox Church in the EU countries is a source of a hidden threat and Putin’s leverage, while the activities of Russian Orthodoxy are frankly destructive, having nothing to do with traditional religious. The presence of the ROC in the EU countries should be abolished.