Op-Ed: The Ukrainian Church of shelters and catacombs, the geopolitics of Eastern Orthodoxy

By Evangelos Venizelos*

In the wake of the Russian attack and the war in Ukraine, the arguments heard in 2018-2019 regarding the granting of autocephaly [independence from the Moscow Patriarchate] to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine came to the surface once more, mainly due to a speech by Vladimir Putin.

In this speech, the justification for the war, from the Russian vantage point, was provided.

The questioning of Ukraine's ecclesiastical identity is linked to the questioning of the country's national identity, its national language and its national sovereignty.

The Russian side does not recognise any of these. The theory of diminished sovereignty is also connected to the non-recognition of an autocephalous Church, as is the case with all other national autocephalous Churches.

Moscow Patriarch blesses attack on Ukraine

Additionally, a shocking event has now taken place: the Patriarch of Moscow has "blessed" the attack, offering a "theological", and in any case ecclesiastical, legitimacy to a war of aggression accompanied by acts which fall under the jurisdiction International Criminal Court as war crimes.

It is also obvious that the Russian Church in Ukraine, the Church under Metropolitan Onufriy, is in an extremely difficult position, since it is in a conflict between its ecclesiastical affiliation on the one hand and its national consciousness, the need for national defence, and national dignity on the other.

Moreover, the "Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate" itself has been suffering attacks on its churches and its property and, above all, there are casualties among its flock. So this is a radically different situation.

Orthodox Churches that do not recognise Ukrainian...