Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced he is seeking to ban all religions with ties to Russia. He claims the move is needed to "guarantee spiritual independence to Ukraine."
This law will target millions of Ukrainians who identify as Russian Orthodox.
During his nightly address on Thursday, Zelensky announced he was introducing legislation that would eliminate religious organizations affiliated with Russia from operating in Ukraine. He said this will make "it impossible for religious organizations affiliated with centers of influence in the Russian Federation to operate in Ukraine."
The Ukrainian leader said it was necessary to purge the church to preserve the country’s spiritual independence. Adding, "We will never allow anyone to build an empire inside the Ukrainian soul." Zelensky denounced Ukrainians continuing to attend the parishes as failing to overcome "the temptation of evil."
He claimed a series of recent raids by Kiev’s intelligence found orthodox churches which remain connected with the Moscow Patriarchate have been acting as operatives for the Kremlin. In his address, Zelensky instructed his security forces to further target Russian Orthodox parishes.
Around two-thirds of Ukrainians identify as Eastern Orthodox Christians. At one point, the majority of Ukrainians attended parishes that followed the Moscow Patriarchate. Some recent polls say that number has dwindled to under 15%. However, the polling was only conducted in territory that was controlled by Ukrainian forces. Zelensky has vowed to return those regions to Kiev’s authority.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, responded by slamming Zelensky’s move as authoritarian. "The current Ukrainian authorities have openly become enemies of Christ and the Orthodox faith," he said.
Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Antiwar.com, news editor of the Libertarian Institute, and co-host of Conflicts of Interest.
I cant help but believe that most of the people in the world would welcome a drone strike on Zelensky.
In 1963 we murdered Diem. That certainly didn’t stop the Vietnam War. Just how would murdering Zelensky stop the Ukraine War? Oh, that’s right, you were joking.
In a sense you’re right. We’ve seen plenty of examples how Washington treats its patsies. But the Diem analogy is off by 180′. He and Kennedy were ready to end it. Zelensky, patsy puppet for their regime change war against Putin, has gone nutters into his role -to wit the Polish incident- and bent big-time on WW III where most of Washington is probably not willing to go; worse than Saddam, gone far beyond being an embarrassment.
So, let me get this right, we killed Diem to keep the war going but we are not killing Zelensky to keep the war going? Is that right?
Washington is split on continuing war. They want regime change; but, not WW III.
I can only say that I very much hope that you are absolutely correct!
That sounds like it might be true 🙁
DC isn’t split on this war. Until they can engineer the next one, this one works for them.
That’s true. JFK did sign off on the assassination of the Diem brothers, and three weeks later JFK himself was assassinated and a few years after that his brother RFK. What goes around comes around.
Why? He is a good comedian. Most people would welcome the strikes on parasites who control him and these pests hide in US and England. Voodimor is just doing what he is told.
Nope. Zelensky is all in. 100%. He IS one of the “controllers”.
Killing him would change nothing. Puppet Kiev regime will carry on the same as before. It will only damage the reputation of Putin and Russia. After all, he is elected president of Ukraine. It would be better for Putin if Americans or Ukrainian neo-Nazis kill him themselves.
He is destroying Ukraine for WHAT. Is he a Russian mole? Putin must love this moron. I have stories about Ukies farm land being sold to Chinese and Americans/ corporations. But if the Russians are successful, will they let the new owners farm it?
Occuped farm land has vastly less value than it did under peaceful governance. Somebody could take quite a bath if this goes sideways,
He is only doing what American sponsors want him to do. That’s why they promoted him to such a position. Why Putin or any other patriotic Russian politician should love him? A lot of people were killed already, and a lot will die before this war can be terminated. The relations between Russia and EU are badly damaged. The living standards in Russia are also deteriorated. Not so badly as in EU but, nevertheless.
Not a good look for a modern country that respects freedom of worship.
Well, it’s not a modern country, so there’s that, John.
I fear that may be the case, Russians still need to go though.
So you’re good with massive persecution of the people in the Donbass? If not, who’s going to stop it? Sleepy Joe?
Or are you hoping it will just go away?
I don’t necessarily trust the Russian narrative, paranoid as they are. Still I do hope that a post war Ukraine would allow for freedom of speech ( and language) and respect for minorities and perhaps a reworked constitution that might increase local autonomy somewhat. The combat in the last years has been mutual Russian forces have been engaged it isn’t one army pounding civilians exactly.
You need to keep up with the news. Speaking of news, a while back Z shut down news outlets. Start searching past news articles.
Obama didn’t stop it. Trump didn’t stop it. Drooling Joe? Hah!
Go? Go where? It’s Russian land. Like ancestral Russian. They have more right to be there than Saxons in England. Never mind new world colonies.
The ones with guns from across the border, the local Ukrainians of Russian descent should be allowed to stay
The ones with guns are there to remove Anglo-American terrorists and end the war. Where have you been for the last 9 years?
True. But it’s not like Zelenskyy has given many indications of respecting any freedom. Remember, he’s the guy who declared every adult male in the country a slave, outlawed opposition political parties, and seized control of the media. So it’s not like he has a great track record.
That said, he isn’t so much advocating banning “freedom of worship” as he is playing a card from Putin’s deck: Banning the operations of particular organizations which he claims are agents of foreign influence.
At the moment, the Russian Orthodox Church (with which about 15% of Ukrainian Orthodox Christians chose to remain affiliated after Ukraine established its own independent patriarchate) is headed by a former KGB agent who has turned it into a de facto arm of the regime. Zelenskyy has a better case against it than Putin has against some organizations he’s suppressed (e.g. Jehovah’s Witnesses).
I support Ukraine but won’t be surprised if it doesn’t turn into a modern liberal democracy. We supported Stalin over Hitler neither of those guys was a saint.
Your terrorist empire supported the war in Europe. Just like you’re doing now.
You know what I love most about the USA, John? We have the First Amendment to the US Constitution, which provides that Congress make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting its free exercise. Millions of Europeans came to the USA on the run from a “state church”, conscription, and the various pogroms that happened all over Europe. Now we have a bunch of evangelical nut jobs in the USA who want to turn the USA into a so-called Christian nation. They will never win an election on that issue because they are just a small minority, like how fully one quarter of Americans think the Sun goes around the Earth. Something tell me they are one and the same crowd.
He is insane.
He is not insane;he wants to keep milking the cow until it drops-stirring the pot.Time to dump him. If he had made nice with his neighbor t o the north,all this would never have happened.
I’m just curious as to how the propaganda machine is going to spin this one. No doubt whatsoever they are going to give it their best. So lets see how many are eager to swallow that turd in the making now.
“Let freedom reign” … facts will not be allowed to get in the way of the narrative.
….Or the turd?….lol 😉
Some of the possible angles are already tried here. It seems – rather unsurprisingly – the enlightened West is converging on a new consensus on the acceptability of outlawing religions. It turns out that we are now to find this to be a good thing.
Since as history points out that the devout simply stop believing if they’re told they can no longer worship after which they go on to peacefully shop for new allowable spiritual fulfillment, this is bound to be another huge success for Ukraine.
Exactly. We were already being told that free speech is no longer a good thing. Free religion is next. The whole “free world” concept is becoming more laughable by the day.
What I want is a “free world”,,free of POTUS, Senators, Congress people, and the USA police state,,all DC Ghouls,,they are and must be next!! HuRaH!! Did I mention the MOFUers Generals, and MIC…
Heh. The Brandon press is still busy trying to spin ‘100k officers’ from Ursla Wonder Lying.
Can’t wait to see how they spin this one – the great defender of religious freedom and tolerance – Nazilensky. I mean he already banned political opposition so of course now religion follows. Maybe he should just move onto mass murdering all ethnic Russians in gas chambers next.
This is what happens to all tyrants and other idiots, they go too far. Now he is banning Religion. We will have to wait and see if his Western backers will go along with him. My bet is that they will.
You’re not going to have a huge return on that one.
He will never do what his sponsors don’t want him to do.
A lot of old Orthodox Christian churches were destroyed in Kosovo (the same “backers”).
Lets not get ahead of ourselves – Zelenskyy did not propose to ban the religion:
which is very far from the same, and frankly given what the head of the Russian Orthodox church has said and how they are debating the issue from religious perspectives should come as no surprise – we in the west would also ban any say Muslim organization if that organization was proposing to kill our elected leaders.
You are lying. Neither Russian Christian Church leaders nor Russian Islam leaders ever proposed to kill any political leaders.
No not in so many words but patriarch Kirill does say that the war in Ukraine is a holy war – which leads to about the same, and he backed up a war and a government which does these things as you can see in the video clip.
If you are in doubt about patriarch Kirill’s position on this then here is the evidence that he blesses the war:
https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-patriarch-kirill-dying-ukraine-sins/32052380.html
And here that he is backing Putin to the hilt:
https://atalayar.com/en/content/patriarch-kirill-putins-spiritual-leader-who-blesses-war-ukraine
From there to concluding that the organization would have to be made illegal as it supports a holy war against the Ukraine
The destruction of Russian culture and genocide against Russian population in Donbass started in 2014. The intervention of Russian army in Donbass and in Ukraine had the goal to terminate the war of Kiev regime against Russians. It is logical that Russian Church supported Putin’s efforts to stop the genocidal war of neo-Nazis against Russians.
There was only very limited (wrong headed) government decisions on using Russian language before the Russians helped to start an insurrectionist movement in the Donbas so no this was set in motion by the Russian annexation of Crimea and their intervention to help start a separatist movement in the Donbas.
that started a conflict there – not a Ukrainian genocide followed by an insurrection.
If we accept that this is how the Russians see the conflict, it should then come as no surprise that the Ukrainians ban the organized Russian Orthodox church in Ukraine – they are simply banning an organization bent on fighting them – not surprisingly!
Wow. I didn’t realize you could obtain “spiritual independence” by banning a church.
Perhaps then ask yourself what it is that a church does. Because for most of Christianity history what the Christian church have been doing is to interpret scripture and deciding what is good faith and what is heresy – i.e. determining what you may believe to be part of the church and what will get you persecuted by the church.
“Zelensky Looks To Ban Christian Denomination With Ties to Moscow The
Ukrainian President called for the Russian Orthodox Church to be
outlawed after Kiev’s intelligence agency conducted several raids on
Orthodox cathedrals”
One step closer to a religious war.
Although Patriarch Kirill bears responsibility too, Zelensky has now painted himself into a corner that Blinken may not be able to spin away.
True the final straw in this debacle.
I seriously doubt the US will drop such a useful idiot just because he wants to execute a pogrom.
Agreed. Rather it was the “Russian missile attack on Poland” that sobered all but the most rabid Nuland types.
We did business with NAZI Germany, right up until we entered the war. Prescott Bush was doing quite well.
Indeed. The DC psychopaths will watch carefully to get an indication how much an authoritarian regime can get away with.
Being a staunch supporter of the apartheid state known as Israel, I don’t think Blinken cares one iota.
It has been goung in for a while? Who fo you think are his supporters? Catholics from Western Ukraine. But now he is making clear that it is not just Rissians he wants out if “his” country, but had declared war in majority Ukrainian Orthodoxy.
“had declared war in majority Ukrainian Orthodoxy.”
On the contrary — the Ukrainian Orthodox church, which fairly recently split from the Russian church, is in good with the Kyiv regime.
It’s a bad thing, but let’s not make it into what it isn’t.
True Thomas.
In my county there are both Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox churches.
This will be like the Thirty Years’ War only a little further east. Actually, it will last about an hour and will be the end of both the USA and Russia. What would Jesus say about that?
All things considered, compares better with the Judenrein. Next comes destruction of the synagogues … oops, I mean Russian Orthodox churches.
Blessed are the peacemakers.
Nicely said. 🙂
He’d say: bathroom’s on the right, shower’s on the left, and lights out after 11. As he welcomes you to the afterlife.
I laughed out loud!
Oh please. They don’t have that kind of mindset. Majority is still secular Soviet. But I’m sure that is exactly what the parasites who control Volodimor hope for. They need to somehow create a sustainable conflict.
I hope you are correct about not having that mindset. But you can see why that possible outcome is taken seriously?
I wont say I’m 100% sure but in my assessment there wasn’t any time to cultivate religious zealotry. Anglo-American propaganda and social engineering in Ukraine was focused on creating and supporting “ultra-nationalists”. Majority of these folk are not Christian. They are either Slavic polytheist or atheist. Very few are Christian and they are usually hard-core Adolf fans.
Kremlin have been trying to reinstall monotheism but they aren’t having much luck either. Religion isn’t something that can be easily installed. It have taken our people ~600 years and dictator Pete Romanov brutal policies to accept monotheism.
I see. Thank you for this information. It is hard to get good details on how things are.
It is also a reminder that 75% or more of the people just really want to live their lives.
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The Soviet Union fell apart over 20 years ago. Russian Orthodox people have found their faith and Western Polish Lithuanian Ukrainians are once again hardcore Catholics. Then there is the tribal war between Polish Lithuanian Ukrainians and Russian Lithuanians which has raged in Ukraine since 2014.
When Russia takes all of Eastern Ukraine the tribal war will shift west as Poland, Romania, and Hungary take back their former lands from Ukraine.
It can be religious or tribal this area will be at war until former lands are taken back by all ethnic and religious groups.
Something America has no clue about. All White people are not the same! It is not people of color verses the privileged white people in Eastern Europe. People of European descent have tribal affiliations as well as religious affiliations. Wars have raged for thousands of years in Europe between tribes and religions.
USSR didn’t fall apart in mind of many people. This is evidenced by red flags carried into battle by Russian soldiers. The secular Soviet mindset is still strong. What you need to understand is our people are not ‘law-abiding citizens’. They go out of their way just to stick it to politicians. Rus and Slavs in general are the most difficult population to control with laws. Any kind of central decrees mean next to nothing and social consensus is valued most of all.
The civil war in Ukraine is an ideological conflict between Anglo-American empire and Eurasian civilizations. It’s not religious. I will not become religious despite best of hopes from Anglo-American parasites because of for-mentioned secular Soviet mindset. Judeo-Christianity and monotheism in general is useful to form a subservient, law-obedient mindset but it takes generations to form. Single generation is not enough. But Christianity and Islam are also useful in ideological conflict with decadent Anglo-American empire because Christians and Muslims value family and reproduction.
Evan,
There is indeed a schism between Ukrainian churches and Russian Orthodox.
However, at least the Soviets eliminated Christian mysticism sold by the old pre-1917 Russian Orthodox church which was joined at the hip with the Czar’s government. The Czar along with most European Kings used religion to control their peasants.
I do not have a dog in this fight since I applaud Oliver Cromwell and any politician who eliminated abuses of churches on the less educated. I believe in logic, math, and science but do support everyone’s right to worship as they choose or not worship at all.
Now for tribalism, ethnic cleansing of Slavic Eastern Ukrainian people is one issue,. NATO’s push into Ukraine is a greater issue. Wait until Russia takes all of Eastern Ukraine and stops at the Dnieper River. Poland, Romania, and Hungary will sharpen their knives and carve their traditional lands out of Western Ukraine.
At that point it’s a tribal war between old ethnic groups which goes back thousands of years.
Americans are too stupid to realize this, but American politicians are using the old divide and conquer strategy to exert economic influence over Eastern Europe.
The all out civil war in Ukraine is the imperial backup plan. The Anglo-American terrorists want to use all Ukrainian state resources to wage war against Russia and cause as much destruction as possible by directly targeting civilian infrastructure or using civilian building for cover. When Russia starts making serious gains, they will do everything to sabotage the Ukrainian state and turn it into another Libya. So yeah, they may assassinate Volodimor and encourage surrounding vassal states to carve up their historical pieces in order to escalate the conflict. Obviously, nobody in Eurasia is interested in a bleeding wound in the center of Europe. I imagine Kremlin will do everything to prevent it but I’m not 100% sure they wont just turn blind eye and let left Europe to deal with their own subservient policies and ramifications of such imperial submission. They will liberate and secure Kiev and Odessa. That I can say for sure.
Soon coming to the “Exceptional” USA.
If Zelensky makes the Russian Orthodox wear a yellow star, or some other such symbol, do you think anyone might finally realize that Russia’s goal to eliminate Nazi’s from Ukraine might not be so far fetched?
So a Jewish guy wants to attack the Orthodox Christian church.
This will not play out well as it appears to be the start of a religious war. What is next pogroms and concentration camps for Russian Ukrainians?
Right on, CT. Does turning Ukrainazia into “a big Israel” come to mind?
The man is one very sick MF. He’s clearly off his leash – or his “meds”.
What color armbands will be proscribed for Christian Orthodox? Just because Nazis created a pseudo-Ukrainian Orthoxldoxy, does not mean people have bought it. He is mesding around with 2/3 of population. But then tus has bern happening since 2014,
Zelenski has nothing better to do, but prepare for burning of infidels?
He needs a strong controversy — people without heat, water or food need diversion,
So, where is the counteriffensive? Taking two areas Rusdians withdrew from does not sound convincing,
Or ge just cannot luve eithout bring in the news,
It appears that numerous Ukrainians are atheists.
A lot of Ukrainians are pro-American Satanists. They wanted so very much the integration into The West that they denounced their own religion and their own history. Not only Ukrainian Orthodox Christians, but also a lot of the others. Zelensky is a good example. Hundreds of thousands of his ethnos’s people were exterminated by Ukrainian Nazis under the leadership of Bandera and Shukhevich and now those WW2 criminals are venerated by Kiev regime. Even Israel leadership, pro-American as it is, was outraged by such politics.
While I am not a Satanist, mostly because I think it’s bullshit and I don’t have the time for it anyway, but I do feel the need to stand up for them a bit. Admittedly they do have a bad press and their PR is what it is (room for improvement there I would say) but as far as religions go they are one of the least violent and bloody there are. They beat Buddhism hands down for example. I would say on a par with Jainists, but a little less pedantic about it.
You feel the need to stand up for whom? For those who organized the genocide in time of WW2.?
As I recall those were called Nazi’s. Them were slightly different from Satanists. They even wear different uniforms.
It doesn’t matter what uniform one uses. One can be Nazi or Bolshevik or radical Wahhabi. As long as one works for the establishment of a terrorist regime and against the idea of the equality of people and their peaceful coexistence, one serves for the enemy of Humankind, which is Satan. Therefore, all those radicals, the same as neo-cons, can be called Satanists. All Satanists are the pathological liars. If they stop lying, they will stop to be Satanists.
You are using Satanism as a substitute for “is bad.” That is not what it means to Satanists. What is regarded good and what is bad might differ starkly from central christian values, especially with respect to ascetic aspirations, hypocrisy inviting self-neglect and such, but they are not anti-human. In fact the recognition of being human is the central theme of the whole thing. And they’re not lying more than any other human, religious or not. Maybe even a little less, because they don’t have much of an incentive to pretend they’re better than they are.
Like all religions Satanism means different things to different practitioners. And like all religions it possesses an uncanny attractiveness to the mentally unstable, socially inept and such. It has nothing to do with neoconservatism, nazism (the Gott-mit-uns people) or bolshevism. Those are purely political ideologies. Wahhabism is an islamic revisionist-fundamentalist movement founded in the 18th century, closely resembling Salafism, where the main difference is the nationalist affiliation with Saudi-Arabia. So besides a religious, it also has a distinct political ideology. Also having nothing to do with Satanism.
Not every bad is the Satanism, but Satanism is really bad.
Well, Z did say he wanted Ukraine to be like Israel. IDF raids mosques in occupied territory. Kiev raids Russian Orthodox Churches.
Vatican China underground worshipping of God and USA’s R2P for the Jesus freaks in China .
Uighur Islam China and USA R2 P for the Allah freaks in China.
Nothing to see .Nothing to hark back to the black hole of the deceptive maneuvering . Move on.
Really brilliant. Just make this entire farce descend even further into insanity. How the MSM will spin or ignore this? I can not possibly know, other than to know that the irrational are at the controls of a Death Machine.
Except for the state.
Zelensky has also banned Russian newspapers, twelve opposition parties, and forced all TV news to operate on a government channel.
Zelensky’s Security Council has the power to arrest people and steal all their money on flimsy pretexts. Men are forbidden from leaving. War dissenters are taped to lampposts in a crouching position in Kiev. The pictures and video exist, but the media won’t show them.
People have been kidnapped and killed, including mayors whose crime was to establish humanitarian corridors with the Russians. Government officials then write online, “One less traitor in Ukraine, but many more remain.”
Meanwhile Zelensky’s parliament voted themselves a 70% tax increase in the summer. Even though few even show up, as they are in the French riviera and the Caribbean.
And this de facto dictatorship is paid for by Biden. Can’t let there be a regime change that would cast light on the bribes he has received from government-owned Burisma, and who knows what else. The American people’s tax money channeled to Ukraine via Scam Bankman’s FTX, with money going to the Democrats from there. A little background to why any clamping down on freedom in Ukraine is acceptable. It’s a fight to the death for the Zelensky-Biden duo.
The US state admires Zelensky’s regime and that fact is damning.
I’m an Orthodox Christian (Croatian) and big supporter of Antiwar. Some of the comments I have read on mainstream news regarding this situation has been very depressing, the careless disregard and zero desire for any understanding of the Church. All they see is “Russian = Bad!!!”
The situation in Ukraine has been a mess even before the war. The “Greek” ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew (Who is a puppet of the Turks and probably NATO as well, but that is another discussion) tried flexing his power and uplifting some rebellious and uncanonical priests in Ukraine. Kiril rightly protested this, but then he committed the same sin in retaliation in Africa.
What Zelensky has done is no surprise. I believe either the Latvian or Estonian government recently did much the same, outlawing the Russian Orthodox Church there and installing their own. For the record, the Russian church has actually granted “church” independence to the Poles and Finns, so I would say even with their flaws they are hardly tyrannical in their church government style. The fascist ustasi in Croatia tried to do much the same, creating a fake “Croatian Orthodox Church”. Of course it’s true purpose was to reintegrate Serbs into the Croatian state. Frankly, to me it is an outrageous that a 100% atheist government has a right to say what a private Church can or cannot do. But I guess it’s okay because Russian = bad!!!
The Orthodox Church is not the Catholic Church Lite. The Patriarchs, while deserving of honor, are not Jesus Christ on Earth. They can err and even be deposed. Any basic reading of Church History shows that a lot of heresarchs (people who “create” heresy) were actually Patriarchs or high ranking bishops – Nestorius comes to mind right away, not random laymen. There are many priests and people who are not happy with Patriarch Kiril’s cheerleading of Putin’s war, regardless of their opinion on it. But that side of the story will never get posted on most American media, cause that goes against the narrative
and while I’m on this rant I’ll also say I am getting tired of hearing “Putin’s orthodox regime” or “Dugin’s orthodox philosophy”. Dugin and whoever wrote that sentence’s head would probably explode if they read someone like St. Theophan the Recluse, a deeply spiritual and serious Russian hermit who’s ascetical and humble life would seem completely alien to most people today. And that’s real Orthodoxy. Not some nationalist church or whatever the bishop happens to say this month.
And so it continues ….. Ethnic Russians are the current Jews under the Ukrainian Nazi regime.
I hate Ukraine so much. All the German “stand with Ukraine” has brought us is misery and povety.
“We will never allow anyone to build an empire inside the Ukrainian soul.”
–Zelensky
For Zelensky that includes Jesus Christ.