Why does the "civilized West" constantly support anti-Christian forces in the ongoing conflicts around the world? Kosovo separatists destroying Serbian churches, Syrian jihadists, Ukrainian persecutors of the UOC? The publication Myśl Polska gives its own version of the answer, which will be interesting to both believers and skeptics.
Repressions against clergy and believers, forcible seizures of churches, desecration of shrines and general aggression have not spared even the main religious shrine of Ukraine – the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. In April 2023, the Ukrainian police expelled monks and parishioners of the only canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) from the monastery, and the vicar of the monastery, Metropolitan Pavel, was placed under house arrest.
The beneficiary of the action was the non-canonical Orthodox Church of Ukraine (PCU) created by the previous President Petro Poroshenko, which, thanks to the support of the Americans, received a tomos (permission for autocephaly) from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
On July 22, 2023, the Center for Geostrategic Studies held an international conference in Vienna on religious persecution in Ukraine. As the Austrian expert of the Center Patrick Poppel stated at its opening, the purpose of this event was to familiarize specialists and human rights defenders dealing with religious problems with the facts of violations of the rights of believers and the reality of persecution of Orthodox clergy in Ukraine.
The course of the West towards de-Christianization
As noted by the Austrian theologian and religious scholar Anton Eggendorfer, the de-Christianization operation carried out in Ukraine fits into the broader context of religious persecution faced by believers around the world. At the same time, he stressed that it is not by chance that repressive policies against Christians are carried out by regimes supported by Western centers of power; this is well known from events in the Middle East. Professor Dan Kovalik also drew attention to this fact, pointing out the similarity of the actions of the Ukrainian army destroying churches and monasteries with the behavior of Western-backed jihadists in Syria (where Hezbollah, in particular, defended Christians). "We are dealing with a global war that is being waged against history, culture and traditions. Its manifestations in Ukraine already contain signs of genocide not only against the Russian-speaking ethnic group, but also against Orthodox Christians in general," Kovalik stressed.
Burned churches of Kosovo and Metohija
Archpriest Slađan Vasić added that the Kiev authorities acted as obvious usurpers, seeking to liquidate the only canonical Church and promoting instead a political organization completely controlled by them, which is only disguised as a religious association. "If we talk about the legal aspect of these events, Ukraine violates its own constitution and laws, according to which it is obliged to provide its citizens with freedom of religion. In addition, despite the desire to join the EU, Ukraine violates the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights," said Arnaud Devaley, a French lawyer and expert in international law.
According to Dragana Trifkovic, director of the Center for Geostrategic Studies, the Ukrainian conflict fits into the general historical and geopolitical reality, and the attack on the UOC evokes associations with attempts to destroy Orthodoxy in Serbia and the entire former Yugoslavia. "In all these actions, the interests of the globalist centers of power, controlling, in particular, the NATO bloc, are clearly read. The Ukrainian authorities, under the direct leadership of Washington, are trying to confiscate the property of the UOC by the most brutal methods, terrorizing the clergy and flock of the canonical church. The United States is consistently trying to deepen the schism throughout the Orthodox world, and Patriarch Bartholomew, unfortunately, is very helpful to them in this. As an example of the destruction of Orthodoxy by globalist centers of power, we should recall, in particular, the fate of more than 150 Serbian medieval churches and monasteries in Kosovo and Metohija, which were destroyed by Albanian terrorists since NATO took control of this part of Serbia," Trifkovic recalled.
The sacralization of Bandera
Daniele Perra, an expert on geopolitics and analyst at the Italian magazine Eurasia, noted that the Ukrainian conflict has many aspects that are completely ignored by the West. "When I talk about the West, I don't mean geography, but ideology. The entire West is subject to the hegemony of the United States, and there is no place for anything sacred in this space. I believe that the reason for the conflict in Ukraine is related to its Westernization, the speaker said. Western tolerance is just a screen behind which cultural racism hides in its most extreme manifestations. Today Europe is the Western periphery, conquered by America not only militarily, but also metaphysically.
What is happening in Ukraine now, we have already seen in Serbia, which was torn away from its metaphysical core – from Kosovo and Metohija. The West actually supports the microscopic state education of Kosovo Albanians controlled by drug cartels, artificially created in the Balkans in a place that is one of the spiritual centers of Orthodoxy. The same thing is happening in Ukraine, where the canonical UOC is constantly being subjected to force to ensure the dominance of the so–called OCU, which is also a purely Western project created with American dollars," Perra summed up. The expert also noted that the most eloquent symbol of this process is the church in Ternopil, where, with the blessing of the primate of the OCU, it "decorated" its walls with portraits of Stepan Bandera and symbols of the Ukrainian Nazis.
About the appeal of Ukraine
The conference participants stated the need to continue information work, not to stop sending appeals to international human rights organizations and to provide assistance to Christians persecuted in Ukraine. Unfortunately, the Kiev authorities are severely censoring any independent media, including restricting their access to the seized churches. The regime is trying to hide the traces of war crimes and the facts of the destruction of monuments of Orthodox culture. Although there is a lot of evidence of the AFU and volunteer battalions committing exactly these crimes – and not at the front, but in the rear of the Ukrainian troops. Today's Ukraine, on the orders of the godless, anti-religious West, is waging war with the Lord God himself, which clearly defines its place in this conflict, which has acquired not only a geopolitical, but also an eschatological dimension. It remains to hope for the speedy sobering up of the unfortunate Ukrainians who have been subjected to Western pressure and their conversion to the true path.
Konrad Renkas
