The role of religion in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, along with the impact the invasion has had on religion, have attracted significant attention. Peter Mandaville of the United States Institute of Peace has stated that "the conflict in Ukraine is not only a matter of horrible violence, but also a conflict with deeply rooted religious significance."
Orthodox Christianity
Orthodox church in Russia
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, has been described by many commentators as supporting the invasion. In a Forgiveness Sunday sermon on 6 March, he stated that the invasion would determine "which side of God humanity will be on," saying that Western governments were attempting to destroy the separatist Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic for rejecting Western "so-called values," such as LGBT+ rights.
However, some priests in the Russian Orthodox Church have publicly opposed the invasion, with some facing arrest under the new Russian war censorship laws criminalising "discrediting" the armed forces. In Kazakhstan, Russian Orthodox priest Iakov Vorontsov, who was one of about 300 clergy who signed an open letter condemning the invasion of Ukraine, was forced to resign. Russian former priest-monk Ioann Kurmoyarov condemned the invasion and was sentenced to three years in prison for, among other things, telling Russian troops they would be going to hell.
Kristina Stoeckl of the University of Innsbruck has stated that "this war and the justifications given by the Russian president and the head of the church for the military aggression have made clear how closely the Orthodox Church and the state are linked in Russia." Georg Michels of the University of California, Riverside has argued that "the Russian Orthodox Church is providing much of the symbolism and ideology that Putin has used to cement his popularity" and that this symbolism "derives from the Kremlin’s mythologization of Russia’s historical past." The links between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian government under Vladimir Putin have led some commentators to describe the invasion as a religious war.
Some commentators have pointed to Russian Christian nationalism as playing a role in the Russian government's motivations for the invasion. Jason Stanley of Yale University argued that the invasion was in part motivated by antisemitism, saying that Putin was "the leader of Russian Christian nationalism" and "has come to view himself as the global leader of Christian nationalism, and is increasingly regarded as such by Christian nationalists around the world." Mark Silk of Trinity College has argued that it would be overstating it to call the invasion a religious war, but that "there can be no doubt that, under Putin, the Russian Orthodox Church has resumed its czarist role as an arm of state policy," calling it the political religion of Russian Orthodox nationalism.
Splits with the Russian Orthodox Church
The invasion of Ukraine, and the Russian Orthodox Church's seeming support for it has caused controversy among Orthodox churches elsewhere in the world. The invasion has been condemned by Bartholomew I of Constantinople, and by Patriarch Daniel of Romania, Patriarch Theodore II of Alexandria, and Archbishop Leo of Helsinki and All Finland.
On 13 March, the Parish of Saint Nicholas of Myra in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, announced that it would be disaffiliating from the Russian Orthodox Church due to its support of the invasion, to instead affiliate with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
On 17 March, Archbishop Innokentiy, head of the Lithuanian Orthodox Church, announced that the Church would "strive for an even greater independence" from the Russian Orthodox Church, condemning the invasion.
Metropolitan Onufriy of Kyiv, primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) (UOC-MP) called the war "a disaster" stating that "The Ukrainian and Russian peoples came out of the Dnieper Baptismal font, and the war between these peoples is a repetition of the sin of Cain, who killed his own brother out of envy. Such a war has no justification either from God or from people." On 27 May 2022, following an official church council held at the Feofaniia convent in Kyiv, it was announced that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church had declared its full independence and autonomy from the Moscow Patriarchate. On 2 December 2022 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy entered a bill to the Verkhovna Rada that would officially ban all activities of the UOC in Ukraine.