Is Ukraine’s largest church still pro-Russian? | News of the war between Russia and Ukraine

Khost, Ukraine – “Praise Jesus” instead of “Hello” is what one often hears in Transcarpathia, the westernmost region of Ukraine.

Known for its piety, enchanting folklore, forested mountains and creative smugglers, Transcarpathia was once dominated by the Greek Catholic Church, which maintains Orthodox rituals but considers the Pope its spiritual leader.

Transcarpathia was never part of Russia until Soviet leader Joseph Stalin annexed it in 1944, imposing a Russian Orthodox Church whose senior clergy cooperated with the KGB, the main security agency of the Soviet era.

“Soviet intelligence either forced all (Greek Catholic) priests to convert to pro-communist Orthodoxy or killed them in Siberia,” Oleh Dyba, a propaganda scholar and researcher of religious life in Transcarpathia, told Al Jazeera.

This is the second year that Ukraine celebrates Christmas on December 25, after hundreds of years of celebrating it on January 7 according to the Gregorian calendar, which the Russian Orthodox Church still uses.

But despite this, the formerly pro-Russian Ukrainian Orthodox Church remains the largest religious see in the country.

Moscow Patriarch KirillHe, who heads the largest Orthodox see in the world, was one of those who cooperated with the KGB. He remains the closest ideological ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, a former KGB colonel.

Kirill is accused of purging dissident priests. Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine has been described as a “holy war.” He said And that Russian soldiers dying in Ukraine have had their sins “washed away.”

“Russia is effectively returning to the rhetoric of the medieval Crusades,” Andrei Kurdushkin, an Oxford-educated theologian who left Cyril’s church to join the Istanbul-based Patriarchate of Constantinople, told Al Jazeera.

More than a thousand years ago, Constantinople sent Orthodox priests to baptize Prince Vladimir of Kiev, a pagan Viking whose state would give birth to what are now Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.

Auckland University was a large and essential part of Moscow’s religious empire with thousands of parishioners and priests.

Some of them adopted pro-Russian views after Moscow annexed Crimea and supported separatists in the southeastern Donbas region in 2014.

“Their priest refused to pray for my cousin who was fighting in Donbas in 2015,” Philip, a resident of the Transcarpathian village of Chenadevo, told Al Jazeera. “Since then, I have never set foot in that church.”

Meanwhile, separatists turned against pro-Ukrainian clergy.

One of those targeted was Archbishop Afanasy, who faced a mock execution in June 2014 in the rebel “capital” of Luhansk.

He was blindfolded, placed against the wall, and heard a shot that did not touch him.

Afanasy told this reporter in 2018 that he left Luhansk in his dilapidated car whose brakes were deliberately damaged by rebels.

UOC vs. OCU

In 2019, the pro-Western Ukrainian government established the new Ukrainian Orthodox Church (OCU) under the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

However, despite the cajoling, coercion and persecution of the clergy, the formerly pro-Russian Ukrainian Unified University remains the largest religious see in Ukraine.

It officially broke away from Moscow and aided the war effort by hosting refugees, collecting humanitarian aid, and donations for drones and medical supplies.

But many of its leaders have been severely criticized for their real or alleged sympathies with Moscow.

The white-bearded Metropolitan Mark, 73, whose religious world centers around the small town of Khost in Transcarpathia, is one of them.

In the past two years, he has been accused of possessing a Russian passport – along with two dozen senior clergy at Auckland University – and building a $225,000 house in Sergiev Posad, a spiritual center outside Moscow where he studied in the 1970s.

Mark’s nephew, driver and deacon, Volodymyr Petrovtsy, faces charges of desertion after deserting his military unit in October and reportedly saying he did not want to fight “his Russian compatriots.”

A clergyman at Metropolitan Mark told Al Jazeera that the claims about the house and passport were false.

“I can tell you with all sincerity that this is not true,” Father Vasily said, as he stood inside Khost Cathedral, whose walls and ceiling were filled with images of Gospel scenes and icons.

However, he claimed that in 2018, popular comedian Volodymyr Zelensky sought the support of the UOC ahead of the presidential elections.

Father Vasiliy, without providing any evidence of the exchange, said Zelensky received support after pledging to convert to Christianity – but did not keep his alleged “promise.”

“Since then he has been punishing and persecuting us,” Father Vasily said.

Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify Vasiliy’s allegations.

Ukraine’s Security Service, the main intelligence agency, said in August that since 2022, more than 100 UU priests have been suspected of treason, cooperating with Moscow-appointed officials in the occupied territories and spreading Russian propaganda.

That’s when the Verkhovna Rada (the lower house of the Verkhovna Rada) banned the Olympic Games Committee “to strengthen national security and protect the constitutional order.”

“A risky experience with citizens”

However, the move is highly counterproductive, according to a German researcher who has spent decades studying religious life in Ukraine and visited dozens of dioceses.

Nikolai Mitrokhin of the University of Bremen said far-right groups were pressuring the Olympiad into submission by force, seizing parishes and ignoring their parishioners fighting on the front lines.

“When Ukraine loses on the battlefield, it is very dangerous for its citizens to experience this way,” he told Al Jazeera.

The pressure violates the Ukrainian constitution and draws criticism from the collective West, jeopardizing military and financial aid supplies, he said, adding that the pressure gives the Kremlin a perfect pretext to criticize the “neo-Nazi junta in Kiev” and spread anti-Ukrainian messages. , and appropriate dioceses in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions.

On December 16, celebrity chef Evin Klopotenko filmed a cooking demonstration of traditional Christmas dishes in the canteen of Kyiv Pecherska Lavra, a huge religious complex in central Kyiv.

Most of the old complex belongs to the UOC.

The Kremlin responded to the news with predictable sarcasm – and shared it with the pro-Russian public in the former Soviet Union.

“They are seizing churches to turn them into circuses,” Nilufar Abdullaeva, a self-described “Russian patriot” who lives in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, told Al Jazeera. “They have lost all shame.”

Mitrokhin said that the official ban on the United Olympic Company would only force it underground, and “it will emerge from there sooner or later with the image of a martyr and a victor.”

Finally, the closure of parishes may damage and destroy thousands of historical buildings that need constant attention, repairs and heating during the harsh winters in Ukraine.

“In a short period, the catastrophic destruction of frescoes and then buildings begins,” Mitrokhin said. “Therefore, a large segment of Ukraine’s cultural heritage will disappear.”