Religious Mobilization in Ukraine

  • Citation: Brylov, Denis, and Tetiana Kalenychenko. “Religious Mobilization in Ukraine.” United States Institute of Peace, April 1, 2022.
    • Topics:
    • Country and Regional Studies
    • Keywords:
    • Ukraine
    • Russia
    • religion
    • Orthodox Church
    • human rights
    • religious leaders

Even prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, religious relations between the two countries have often mirrored the long-simmering geopolitical tensions surrounding Ukrainian independence and autonomy. Russia’s previous annexation of Crimea and its intervention in Donbas had already provoked the creation of a united Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) by uniting the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church and Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate. The newly created OCU represented a direct threat to Russia’s official domination of Orthodox Christianity in Ukraine via the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP).