Russian Priest Says Ukraine War Is About Religion, Attacks 'Gay Parades'

Russian Orthodox priests remain aligned with President Vladimir Putin, supporting troops on the frontlines while criticizing Ukrainians for espousing so-called Western values.

Archpriest Svyatoslav Churkanov is one of dozens of those priests, telling Agence France-Presse (AFP) that he does not doubt the goals of Russia's strategic mission and its defense of "traditional values." He and other priests have met with troops to aid them mentally and spiritually.

"In Ukraine, even in wartime conditions, they are holding gay parades to show that they share Western values," Churkanov said.

Several Orthodox clerics have died in Ukraine, according to the independent Moscow Times. One of them was Mikhail Vasilyev, who posthumously received the Hero of Russia award, the country's top honor, from Putin.

Putin initiated his "special military operation" in Ukraine last February 24 for the purpose of what he and other top officials referred to as "denazification." The term was adjusted around October, switching to "desatanization" to combat "hundreds of sects" in Ukraine that allegedly abandoned Orthodox values.

"I believe that, with the continuation of the special military operation, it becomes more and more urgent to carry out the desatanization of Ukraine," said Aleksey Pavlov, assistant secretary of the security council of the Russian Federation. "Using internet manipulation and psychotechnologies, the new regime turned Ukraine from a sovereign state to a totalitarian hypersect."

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in November said Russia was not fighting against just Ukraine but also Satan.

It's not just priests who are fighting an ideology-based battle.

Nikita Astakhov is the artistic director of a Moscow theater called Glas (Voice), described as a venue that has promoted Orthodox values and Russia's mission of "rising up against evil."

"Russia will never be defeated as long as more than half of Russians are Orthodox," Astakhov told AFP.

Not all Russian clerics support the rhetoric emanating from their homeland.

Andrei Kordochkin is an Orthodox priest now based in Madrid who was one of 300 priests who previously signed an open letter urging authorities to end the "fratricidal war" in Ukraine.

Kordochkin told the Moscow Times that Russian officials are repeating similar language as that used during the Middle Ages, which Pope Urban referenced to bless the Crusades.

"We can be nostalgic for the Middle Ages, but it is impossible to return there," he said. "War as a form of murder cannot have any spiritual meaning at all."

Mikhail Troitskiy, professor of practice at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Newsweek that Russia is amplifying its comparison of Ukrainian and Western values due to its inability to militarily defeat the Ukrainians.

"I think it has become common for the Kremlin to blame others/the West for what the Russian ruling elite is practicing itself," Troitskiy said. "It is an open secret, for example, that a large number of members of that elite are gay. And these are exactly the people who go on the record lambasting the 'Western gay and satanic culture.'

"Forcing them to condemn and deny parts of their own identity makes them demoralized and malleable in the face of the growing claims on them by the Kremlin asking them to support an increasingly questionable and radical line in domestic and foreign policies."

It's difficult to gauge how many Russians actually believe the rhetoric, Troitskiy said, due to continually falsified public polling. However, it remains an alarming narrative among those who are beholden to Putin and Russian propaganda.

"One should not rule out that the crusade argument strikes a chord with substantial numbers of Russians," he said, noting the irony of how Russia is acting as crusaders against the so-called pagan West.

"All in all, casting the West as an evil force that seeks to snatch Ukraine, Russia's 'younger sister,' from Russia's embrace is an influential metaphor that will certainly be used by conservative factions in the coming struggle for power in Russia. That narrative should not be discounted as bogus."

Henry Hale, professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, told Newsweek that Russia's emphasis on "traditional values" began in response to the massive liberal opposition protests that broke out after the fraudulent December 2011 parliamentary election.

"Understanding that the Russian Orthodox Church is popular in Russia, and that majorities are opposed to anything other than traditional man-woman relationships, the Kremlin sought to wrap itself in these values while branding its liberal, pro-Western, pro-democracy opponents as morally corrupt," Hale said. "This harks back to centuries-old Russian notions of Moscow as the 'third Rome,' the defender of Christianity against unbelieving or heretic powers."

These are part of continuous "throwing-spaghetti-at-the-wall attempts" for justification by the Kremlin, Hale added, done deliberately to shift enough minds inside the country.

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, described as a powerful ally of Putin, has embraced medieval rhetoric, however, and called on believers to support pro-Russian "brothers" in battle.

On January 5, the Moscow Patriarchate released a statement that Kirill called for a Christmas truce between January 6 and January 8 that "appeals to all parties involved in the internecine strife to cease fire."

Newsweek reached out to Orthodox churches in Russia, Ukraine and the U.S. for comment.

Update 1/6/23, 3:41 p.m. ET: This story was updated with comment from professor Henry Hale.