As of today, Kyiv’s magnificent Saint Sophia Cathedral is still standing, despite the war raging around it . . . though there has, of course, been unspeakable damage to many other historic places of worship since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022.

And there are other ways of attacking a nation’s faithful while at the same time destroying their visible history.

While you bombard, vandalize and ransack their churches, you simultaneously go after their clergy in quieter ways . . . which is precisely what is happening in the regions of Ukraine presently occupied by Russia.

In the nearly three years since the start of Russia’s war of attrition against its neighbor, dozens of Ukrainian faith leaders in the Russian-occupied areas have been jailed. Others — priests, pastors and imams — have been threatened with lengthy prison sentences, torture, and even death by Russian authorities, or forced into exile. [Ivana Kottasova, Olga Voitovych and Svitlana Vlasova, CNN, December 16, 2024.]

One such story was revealed by Pastor Dmytro Bodyu, founder of the evangelical Word of Life Church in Melitopol. He told CNN that around 15 armed men — identifying themselves as Russian police and FSB officers — stormed into his home early on March 19, 2022. As his wife and son watched, they took him off to a local police station. There they locked him in a small cell and threatened him with execution. He said they kept telling him they knew he was an American CIA agent hired by the U.S. government to spread anti-Russian propaganda.

“They said they knew for sure because all Protestant churches and Catholic churches are working with the American secret services, and all their pastors work for the US government, because the Protestant church is not a real church,” he said. [Id.]

He was held for eight days, but even after his release he was told he could continue preaching only if he cooperated with authorities; that his sermons would be subject to censorship; and that he would have to pass along potentially damaging information about his parishioners to the Russians.

Pastor Bodyu refused, and eventually left Melitopol. His church was thereafter shut down as part of Russia’s crackdown on any and all Ukrainian religious groups not affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church (a.k.a. the Moscow Patriarchate). [Id.]

In another southern Ukraine city — Berdiansk — Father Bohdan Heleta, a priest of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, tells of the 19 months he and a fellow priest spent in a notorious Russian penal colony in the occupied Donetsk region of Ukraine. Without repeating all of the horrific details here, the report says he spoke of beatings and torture that — to my mind — would not be survivable. But through a strength that is beyond my comprehension, and an obviously deep faith, both priests did survive and were freed in a prisoner swap in June. Neither had ever actually been charged with a crime. [Id.]

Thus, with a simple, two-pronged strategy, Russia has perfected the means of destroying its perceived religious enemies. Tear down the churches, and the congregations will simply move elsewhere . . . underground, if necessary. But take away their religious leaders, and you’ve taken away the glue that held them together.

It’s not a new tactic. Vladimir Putin has merely reinstated it.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
12/17/24