Religious Actors Key to Peacebuilding in Ukraine, Russia: Report

Metropolitan Epiphanius I, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, sprinkles holy water on believers on April 9, 2023, after a service which marks the Orthodox feast of Palm Sunday in a church at the compound of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery in Kyiv, Ukraine, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Vladyslav Musiienko/Reuters

Religious actors have the potential to radically encourage and shape peace efforts between Ukraine and Russia but are being overlooked by policymakers, according to a new report.

Despite a strong secular focus in American and European strategy circles, religion is directly informing the geopolitical and military aspects of the war in Ukraine, according to a report published by the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP).

“The conflict in Ukraine is multilayered, and religion permeates every level,” the report reads.

“Overall, the United States and other international partners must recognize that religious organizations and institutions will, in all likelihood, continue to play a prominent role in Ukraine’s political, ideological, and humanitarian spheres.”

The report found, however, that “elite views” including those of “key EU and Swiss policymakers” overwhelmingly “downplayed the role of religion and religious actors” in peacebuilding efforts in Ukraine.

“Policymakers evidently do not consider religious influences or rely on religious actors when making on-the-ground assessments,” the report reads.

“This preconception could represent a significant gap for European policymakers working on the conflict internationally.”

Religion a ‘Proxy War’ Within the War

Andrii Kryshtal, a co-author of the study, said that religious actors in Ukraine were notable for playing a reactive rather than prescriptive role in peacebuilding.

In other words, religious leaders more often acted “without a predefined set of actions” in order to address situations as they arose, whereas international actors were slower to respond to emerging scenarios due to their focus on achieving preordained strategic goals.

“Active peacebuilding was mainly locally based” with religious leaders, Mr. Kryshtal, project manager for Conciliation Resources, a peacebuilding organization, said during a Jan. 18 talk at USIP.

Mr. Kryshtal noted that the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church both “still have parishes on both sides of the conflict lines” and could therefore be motivated to help victims of the war regardless of nationality.

That geographical diffusion has created problems, too, however, with political forces in Moscow and Kyiv both seeking to co-opt religious leaders into serving the soft power needs of the state.

“Religion became instrumentalized by different political actors [after the invasion],” Mr. Kryshtal said.

To that end, confrontations have emerged between Ukraine’s three largest faith communities: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

Catherine Wanner, a professor at Pennsylvania State University, described the situation as “something of a proxy war on a religious battlefield that parallels the actual war.”

Still, she said, the churches’ ability to provide for peacebuilding efforts remains immense due to their preexisting hierarchies and humanitarian outreach services.

“I don’t know of many governmental offices or NGOs that could offer those capabilities,” Ms. Wanner said.

Increasing Politicization Among Churches

Few in Ukraine and Russia have been immune to the politicization of religion following Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.

The USIP report notes that even Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, previously viewed as immensely secular, has begun to buy into increasingly religious rhetoric when talking about the conflict.

“Although Zelensky showed little interest in promoting a political narrative laden with religion at the beginning of his administration, references to religion and ensuring Ukraine’s ’spiritual independence' entered his rhetoric in late 2022” the report reads.

Likewise, Mr. Zelenskyy is coming under increasing pressure from his government to ban the UOC over its ties to the Russian Orthodox Church, a move that he has said could hamper the nation’s ability to join the European Union because of freedom of religion issues.

The increasing polarization of religion isn’t isolated to Ukraine and is becoming increasingly prevalent among former Soviet states in Eastern Europe.

On Jan. 18, Estonia ordered the head of its branch of the Russian Orthodox Church to leave the country, calling him a threat to national security and accusing him of “vindicating the Kremlin regime.”

For now, however, there is still some hope that religious leaders at the local level can encourage peace and healing among their communities.

“Despite their covert status, these projects are playing an important role in building bridges and de-escalating tensions,” the report says of local church efforts.

“Under these trying circumstances, both the strengths and weaknesses of religious actors have been on full display, on the one hand confirming their ability to take highly effective humanitarian action, and on the other demonstrating their relative powerlessness in the face of the state, which has continued to instrumentalize religion for political purposes.”

Denys Brylov, head of the European Centre for Strategic Analytics, and Tetiana Kalenychenko, the organization’s executive director, co-authored the report.