KIEV

- Three battalions affiliated with Muslims are involved in the ranks of the Ukrainian forces, including the Chechen battalions "Sheikh Mansur" and "Johar Dudayev", the two anti-Russian and anti-Russian leaders Ramzan Kadyrov, as well as the Islamic "Crimea" battalion, which includes Crimean Tatar fighters.

In parallel, the "Ukrainian Orthodox Church" announced that about 7,000 of its priests and followers volunteered in the ranks of "Regional Defense", which is a military security structure auxiliary to the army, which brings together volunteer civilians, war veterans, and reservists.

On the Internet and social networking sites, pictures of imams, monks and Jewish clergymen are also spread, who have taken off their turbans and robes, and replaced them with military uniforms and weapons.

While Yevstriti Zorya - a senior bishop of the Ukrainian Church - described Russian President Vladimir Putin as a "monster", and considered him to be the "Satan", as he described it.

A sign with a picture of Putin and the phrase "We do not love you, we do not forget and we do not forgive you" near the Orthodox Church in Malin, Ukraine (European)

relief and resistance

Since the beginning of the Russian war on Ukraine, different religions quickly entered the fray, and many of their Ukrainian followers are carrying guns in defense of the country.

This new reality includes the attitudes of senior religious figures towards the events, and the intensive activities they carry out during the days of war, at the counseling, relief and military levels.

The "Ukrainian Orthodox Church", the Religious Administration of Muslims of Ukraine "Ummah" and the Council of Muslims of Ukraine launched relief campaigns to collect donations and distribute them to the affected, the displaced and the soldiers.


Transformation or "killing the invaders"

On the other hand, social networking sites are witnessing an escalation in anti-Russian rhetoric and its religious symbols, as Ukrainians direct a torrent of insults and other popular descriptions of the Russian army, the Moscow Orthodox Patriarchate, as well as the symbols of its churches - so far - in Ukraine, amid calls to convert to the "Orthodox Church". Ukraine, which declared its independence from the Moscow Patriarchate at the end of 2018.

In a remarkable statement, the head of the Autonomous Orthodox Church in Ukraine, Metropolitan Epiphanius, considered that "the killing of the Russian invaders is not a sin in the eyes of the Church."

"We as a people do not seek the death of our neighbors, but since they came to our homeland, we defend our families and our land. Our soldiers protect all Ukrainians, and killing the enemy is not a sin," he added.

Epiphanius called the country's Orthodox to turn towards their independent church, considering it "a church directed at serving the interests and unity of the Ukrainian people," in what seemed to be a response to the Moscow Patriarchate's blessing of Russia's war on Ukraine.

The head of the Orthodox Church also announced that about 100 churches belonging to the Moscow Patriarchate in the country have already decided to convert to his independent church.

From the destruction caused by the Russian bombing of the Orthodox Church in Malin (European)

Destruction in places of worship

And Ukrainian government circles consider that Russia is deliberately targeting places of worship in Ukraine.

The government's Department of Religions said in a statement on its official website that "the Kremlin's propaganda about "protecting Orthodoxy" hides imperialist ambitions. Russian aggression is destroying churches and places of worship in Ukraine."

The department indicated that 59 sites of churches, mosques, temples or religious schools have been targeted in 8 separate Ukrainian regions that have been burning since the beginning of the war, including 40 Orthodox churches, 5 Protestant churches, 3 mosques, and 3 synagogues.

The department pointed out that at least two sites of churches, mosques or places of worship are directly targeted daily, considering that "this is an indication of intentional targeting."