Russian President Vladimir Putin has portrayed himself as a defender of members of the Orthodox Church and traditional Christian values. The West’s legacy media widely reported a defense of Russia’s war by His Holiness Kirill, the patriarch of Moscow and All-Russia. Yet at least a dozen Orthodox Church bodies — including some under the authority of the Russian Orthodox Church — have condemned Russia’s month-long invasion of Ukraine, a majority Orthodox country. Some Orthodox Christian leaders have gone so far as to call the war “paranoid,” describe this “aggression” as the “worst sin in the world,” and to question the sincerity of President Putin’s Christian faith. These statements have received little to no coverage in the Western media.
The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, His All-Holiness Bartholomew I, said that Russia’s “unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, an independent and sovereign state,” violated “every sense of law and morality. … It is the domination of irrationality over reason, hatred over love, darkness over light, death over life.” He concluded, “We are certain that the Lord will hear our prayers and will not abandon his beloved children in Ukraine.”
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