The Truth About Religious Freedom in Ukraine

The great German theologian and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that if you board the wrong train, it is no use running down the corridor in the opposite direction. More than a few influencers, international organizations, and commentators need to change trains on the subject of religious freedom in Ukraine.
 
It all began with criticism of Ukraine President Zelenskyy’s restrictions imposed on the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and on some clergy and activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). In August 2024, Zelenskyy formalized these restrictive policies by signing amendments to a law that allows his government to ban religious organizations in Ukraine. In December, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights criticized Ukraine for establishing “disproportionate restrictions on the freedom to manifest one’s religion or belief.” In April, the U.S. Commission on International Freedom chimed in, calling on Ukraine to “ensure that enforcement of the amendments comply with international human rights standards.”
 
Earlier this year, President Trump – perhaps misled by commentary in the blogosphere – called Zelenskyy a “dictator.” This leaves many Americans to wonder: Have the United States and NATO been supporting a dictator and what one podcaster calls a “very dark force” that delights in persecuting Christians?
 
This is a good time to take a deep breath and reassess what is really going on in Ukraine. It is time to recognize where the real dark forces are located in this war zone.

• The Ukrainian law is partially a response to the ROC, led by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, a former Soviet-era KGB operative who propagandizes for his close ally and patron, Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kirill echoes Putin’s imperialistic Russky mir ideology, which blends nationalism with religion, asserting a civilizational right to control neighboring countries. Kirill has even dispatched priests to sprinkle holy water on Russia’s nuclear-tipped ICBMs.

Russians refer to the fusion of this state and the church as symphonia, in which the two play a supporting and complementary tune. If ever there was a good argument for the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition on the establishment of an official religion, it is Patriarch Kirill and his cheek-by-jowl connection to the Kremlin.
 
The Ukrainian law affects the UOC, which the ROC considers to be a branch of its church. When Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022, many clergy and laity of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church–Moscow Patriarchate severed relations with Moscow, but some ambiguity remains. The Ukrainian law asserts authority to regulate religious organizations with ties to foreign powers with which the country is at war. Unlike the Russian-occupied eastern portion of the country, no churches have been closed, and no worship ceremonies invaded by soldiers wielding truncheons.
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• In contrast, the ROC’s fellow travelers in Ukraine are wedded to a Russian regime that crushes churches in the occupied parts of Ukraine, murdering, torturing, and imprisoning Evangelical Christian Baptists, Roman Catholics, Pentecostals, and Muslims. According to Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry, 67 clergy members of several faiths have been murdered in Ukraine’s occupied eastern provinces, along with the destruction of 640 places of worship.

 

• This is the “Christian” faith that operated as a fifth column of spies and propagandists within Ukraine. We are rightly proud as Americans of our commitment to religious freedom. But a country being bombed and torn apart cannot be expected to tolerate those who use religion as a shield for espionage and enemy propaganda.

President Trump took a commendable risk for peace in the early days of his second term by reaching out to Putin. Rather than seize this opportunity to solidify his position, however, Putin met the president’s open hand with a slap in the face. The Russian president violated his own Easter ceasefire, firing rockets into city centers in Ukraine, targeting civilians.
 
Ukraine is a country that protects religious diversity. The free expression of religion is enjoyed by Eastern Orthodox worshippers, Ukrainian Greek Catholics and Protestants, Muslims, and Jews, one of whom is now the nation’s president. In other words, it shouldn’t be confused with Russia.

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