Explaining complex things in simple words: war on Christianity, international solidarity with Ukraine, crises in russia

The Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security pursues efforts to provide a brief explanation to foreign audiences on the current topics of particular interest as regards Ukraine. 

"WAR ON CHRISTIANITY"

Marjorie Taylor Greene of the U.S. House of Representatives urged to stop providing aid to Kyiv because the Ukrainian government is waging "a war on Christianity": "attacking Christians, executing priests."

The accusations against Ukraine of killing and persecuting believers and clergy are groundless and absurd.

Ukraine is a multi-religious country where different religions and different Christian churches coexist peacefully.

It is the Russian occupiers who systematically persecute the Orthodox, Greek Catholics, Protestants, and Roman Catholics. Russia prohibits the activities of churches other than the Russian Orthodox Church; it expels, kidnaps, and tortures priests of other churches and denominations.

The Russian occupiers have murdered many priests:

On February 15, 2024, the occupiers tortured to death priest Stepan Podolchak in Kalanchak, Kherson Oblast.

Among those executed by the Russians in Bucha in 2022 was the priest Myron Yuriiovych. Priests Maksym Kozachyna, Platon Morhunov, Rostyslav Dudarenko were shot to death.

The fate of the priests Ivan Levytskyi and Bohdan Heleta kidnapped by the Russians in Berdiansk is unknown.

As a result of the Russian aggression, dozens of Christian churches throughout Ukraine have been destroyed and damaged.

This is not the first time Marjorie Taylor has made baseless accusations. Previously, she claimed that Ukraine had transferred weapons to HAMAS.

INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY WITH UKRAINE

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that currently, much more effort was needed to keep the Ukrainian topic in the focus of world attention.

The world was shocked by Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine; at the beginning, international support and solidarity with Ukraine were at a high level.

The full-scale war with the aggressor has been going on for more than two years. During this time, there were many high-profile events around the world, so the attention to the struggle of Ukrainians is naturally decreasing.

Russia is investing in global instability to distract the world's democracies from helping Ukraine and reduce the resources available to help.

Another goal of the Kremlin is the "normalization" of chaos. It is promoting the idea that aggressive wars and the seizure of territories in the world is a common practice, and therefore nothing extraordinary has happened in the case of Ukraine.

We need to make many more efforts to support the motivation of other countries and peoples to help Ukraine in the fight against aggression. We need to increase perseverance, creativity, persuasiveness.

CRISES IN RUSSIA

The Russian authorities are so focused on the destruction and seizure of Ukraine they have completely neglected their own territories and forgotten about the problems of their citizens.

Numerous funds were invested in an illegal and, more importantly, temporary construction-the Kerch Bridge. Meanwhile, in Russia, bridges are collapsing without repairs. The latest example is the collapse of the Paninsky Bridge in Vyazma, Smolensk region.

Russia attacks dams on Ukrainian reservoirs but is unable to repair its own dams. Due to breakthroughs and floods in the Orenburg, Kurgan, and other regions, settlements were flooded.

It got to the point that the authorities called for a complete evacuation of the population from the regional centre Orenburg, as they could not cope with the remediation of the consequences of the natural disaster.

The impotence of the authorities in Orsk, Orenburg region, led people to a protest rally. The city has no money to compensate for the houses lost as a result of flooding: the money goes to the war against Ukraine.

Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security