Russia's Easter Attacks on Ukraine
And on Christianity writ large
Russia’s president Putin yesterday declared a “truce” for Easter that was supposed to last about 30 hours. Putin claims he was acting out of “humanitarian” considerations. This apparently means that Russia will stop the murder of innocent people for a few hours.
I’ll go ahead and stop here while you laugh.
Here’s what an Easter “truce” looks like in Russia’s continued aggression against Ukraine and its innocent civilians.
However, the Armed Forces of Ukraine has observed an increase in Russian shelling and the use of kamikaze drones since 10 a.m., with the use of FPV drones "doubling," according to Zelensky, relaying information provided by Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi.
Russian forces have already carried out 26 assaults between midnight and noon today, Zelensky added.
There’s a reason why Ukrainians and many others in the world have absolutely zero faith in Putin’s “promises.” And Russia has already acknowledged that it violated its own truce, claiming that its actions were out of “military necessity,” accusing Ukraine of preparing counteroffensives during the ceasefire period.
Well, heck. They’d be stupid not to.
Russia has a habit of violating ceasefires, so this shouldn’t be news to anyone who has been watching reports about Russia’s attacks. Let’s remember that on Palm Sunday, Russia murdered numerous innocent civilians, including children.
The list of Russia’s violations—especially on religious holidays—is lengthy, including a Christmas “ceasefire” in 2016; another Christmas “ceasefire” the following year, during which Ukrainian soldiers were fired upon three times on the first day; the “New Year-Christmas Ceasefire” in 2018, during which Russian-backed forces shelled Ukrainian positions six times on the first day; and a supposed ceasefire for Orthodox Christmas on January 5, 2023, which was followed by Russian shelling in Kherson and Kurakhove the very next day.
And yet, many in the United States consider Russia to be the defender of Christianity. Why?
U.S. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene last year claimed that Russia is “protecting Christianity” more than Ukraine, as part of what she described as a broader war against the religion.
As my friend Kim wrote a few months ago, Tucker Carlson is also pushing Russian propaganda, painting Moscow as “defender” of Christianity.
The West has lost its moral soul and compass, believes Carlson. It’s Vladimir Putin with his strict Slavic adherence to “traditional values” who is worthy of our admiration. He’s manly, he doesn’t tolerate homosexuals, and is devoutly Russian Orthodox. Since Carlson contends that he’s a Christian, this may partly explain why he’s such a cheerleader for Russia.
The claim that Russia is somehow a protector of Christianity and traditional values is patently untrue.
In 2023—a little more than a year after Russia’s full-scale attack on Ukraine began—Nihal Saad, Director of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations in her briefing to the UN Security Council highlighted that Russia has damaged 116 religious sites in Ukraine.
She reported that incidents of violence against members and supporters of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church increased between 1 February and 30 April 2023 in the Government-controlled territory, with hate speech surging. In Russian-occupied territories, she said there is grave concern over reported incidents of enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention, torture or other ill treatment and unlawful deportations perpetrated by Russian armed forces against clergy and members of Ukrainian Greek Catholic and Christian Evangelical communities.
Ukrainian President Zelensky in December also asserted that Russia murdered and tortured 50 priests and destroyed 700 churches in Ukraine since war began.
As of today’s reporting that number has risen to more than 60 plus a host of religious sites.
He added that the Russian military poses one of the greatest threats to Christian churches and believers. Citing wartime data, the president said at least 67 Ukrainian priests, pastors, and monks "were killed or tortured by Russian occupiers," and 640 religious sites have been destroyed—most of them Christian.
Franciscan Media in February said that Russia weaponizes orthodoxy to persecute and murder Christians in Ukraine. Citing a February report from Mission Eurasia, a Tennessee-based ministry that trains Christian missionaries and leaders in 13 nations all over Europe, Asia and Israel, that was drawn from 50 in-person interviews that were conducted between August 2023 and December 2024 with clergy and representatives of all Christian denominations in Ukraine, the organization reported heartbreaking accounts.
Priests have been subjected to imprisonment and torture, including Ukrainian Greek Catholic priests Father Ivan Levitsky and Father Bohdan Geleta, who in November 2022 were seized by Russian forces from their parish, Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos in Berdyansk.
Dozens of church leaders, as well as imams, rabbis, and active church members, faced repression for refusing to cooperate with Russian authorities in the occupied territories of Ukraine. Arbitrary arrests, imprisonment on fabricated charges of extremism, torture, and forced deportation to government-controlled Ukrainian territories were widespread in these areas. In many cases, Russian authorities prohibited deported Ukrainian religious leaders from returning
home under threat of imprisonment.
Priest Ihor Novosilsky of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church endured arbitrary arrest, torture, and illegal imprisonment for 262 days. This occurred because he refused to comply with the demands of the Russian authorities in the Kherson region to renounce the Ukrainian language and subordinate himself to the Russian Orthodox Church.
Sickening reports of torture included electric shocks and baseball bats. On February 15, 2024, in the Kalanchak village in the Kherson region, Russian soldiers tortured and shot OCU priest Stepan Podolchuk. Two days earlier, they had abducted him from his home barefoot, with a bag placed over his head, according to the report.
One of my favorite Bluesky and X commentators, Kate from Kharkiv, reports today that Putin has literally staged a religious slaughter in Ukraine, citing Zelensky and showing yet another example of a destroyed religious site.
Ukrainian media in January quoted Ruslan Khalikov, the head of the “Religion on Fire” project, which monitors Russian war crimes against religious communities, as saying that almost a quarter of the temples damaged by Russia can no longer be used because of the significant damage they sustained. Many cannot be restored, according to the report. (Thank you, Kate, for sending this report!)
Ukraine has not banned Orthodox Christianity, as some claim.
Let’s get something very clear. Ukraine did not ban Orthodox Christianity last year, as some claim. Ukraine banned churches from being connected to Russia, because Moscow uses religion as a lever of soft power to exert influence on its neighbors. That’s a significant difference from what Russian disinformation agents report.
A ban on religious activities linked to Russia, even as Moscow destroys religious sites and tortures religious leaders, is not a ban on religious beliefs, unless religious beliefs include genocide, torture, and kidnappings. Orthodox Christianity has not been banned in Ukraine; Russia’s twisted attacks on Christianity have been.
“The Orthodox Church of Ukraine (the OCU) is aligned with Kyiv and was granted independence from the Moscow Patriarchate in 2019 by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the leading voice in the Orthodox world,” according to RFE-RL reporting last year. The Russian-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) claims it severed all ties with the Moscow Patriarchate in 2023 because of Russia’s invasion, but Patriarch Kirill (aka Vladimir Gundyayev, and a classified a Russian KGB agent) is still a pal of Putin’s and has literally declared a holy war against Ukraine.
Happy Easter!
So on this Easter Sunday, when many in the world celebrate the resurrection of their Savior, Putin will continue bombing innocent people, murdering children, and targeting first responders, and has no plans to extend his alleged “ceasefire, which has not led to any cessation of hostilities, according to Deutsche Welle. (Report is in Russian and begins 49 seconds in and lasts until roughly 12:15.)
In the words of Zelensky quoted in this video, either Putin doesn’t have control of his military, or this is just convenient PR. There is no ceasefire. There is no truce, 30-hour or otherwise.
What churches and holy sites has Russia destroyed?
Russia’s destruction of churches and other holy sites didn’t start with Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. As I mentioned numerous times, this war has been going on for more than a decade, and the destruction of religious sites by Russia has been massive.
The Church of the Ascension (Lukashivka) was destroyed in May, 2022.
The destruction continued in 2023 after Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Shortly after the full-scale attack began, the Russians bombed the Our Lady of the Joy of All Who Sorrow church in Bohorodychne.
The Saint Seraphim of Sarov Church in Druzhba, less than a month after the attack began.
Here’s the Transfiguration Cathedral in Odesa after a Russian missile attack in July 2023.
Easter in a country under attack.
Yet, despite all the bloodshed and destruction, Ukraine continues to show its resilience and strength this Easter holiday!
So tell me again how Russia is the protector of Christianity in this war, while Ukraine is the assailant!
Actually, don’t.
If you have witnessed photos and videos of the destruction Moscow has wreaked and still believe Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene’s claims that the Kremlin is somehow acting to protect Christians, there’s no hope for you!
I have always scratched my head at the lack of reasoning skills from those who claim that “Zelenskyy is closing all the churches!”
Let’s sort this out, shall we?
Zelenskyy is Jewish. He is also the duly elected president of Ukraine. Does it make any sense that an elected Jewish president would close Christian churches in a majority-Orthodox nation?
It also makes no sense to me — as a Christian — that many on the right applaud Putin who is destroying the houses of worship of their fellow Christians. (Looking at you, Tucker Carlson.) And they also want to throw Ukraine to the Russian wolves (looking at you, JD Vance, you who are a recent convert to Catholicism).
This is when tribalism surpasses Christian convictions, apparently.