Non-Religious Influence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate on Ukrainian Society

Abstract

The relevance of the study is provided by the Russian military invasion of Ukraine, more specifically, the hybrid nature of the war that Russia has been waging against Ukraine since 2014. The use of information technologies along with military force, among other things, provides for the involvement of the churches of the Moscow Patriarchate as an additional tool for the spread of destructive ideological influence in Ukraine. Attention to the non-religious influence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) on Ukrainian society is being updated against the background of the ideological confrontation between the Russian and Ukrainian worldview systems in the religious plane. The article presents the factors initiating the distribution of the Orthodox Patriarchate in independent Ukraine, highlights the elements of fundamental differences for Ukraine between the Orthodox Church of the Ukraine (OCU) and the UOC-MP, and considers the actual ways to eliminate problems associated with the functioning of the UOC-MP in Ukraine during the current Russian- Ukrainian war. In addition, some facts of collaborationism carried out by representatives of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine since the annexation of Crimea and the territories of Donbass since 2014 have been studied. A parallel is drawn between the facts of cooperation with the invaders during the full-scale war of 2022 and the statements of Russian priests who give a public assessment of Russian military operations in Ukraine.