(ZENIT News – Contando Estrelas / Vigo, 07.28.2025) – On February 24, 2022, Russia began a large-scale, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, an aggression that continues to this day.
Ukraine, a Country with 85.7% Christians
There is a fact that many people, including many Christians, seem to overlook: Ukraine is a majority Christian country. According to a 2023 Report by the U.S. State Department, 85.7% of Ukrainians identify themselves as Christians. 60.8% are Orthodox, and 11.3% are Christians who do not adhere to any denomination.
To give an idea, according to a CIS survey conducted in April 2025, 55.4% of Spain’s population is Catholic, while the total percentage of non-Catholics is 59%. Thus, in spiritual terms, Ukraine is a much more religious country than Spain. The percentage of Christians in Ukraine is also higher than in Russia, where, according to a US State Department report, the total number of Christians is less than 72%, with 71% being Orthodox Christians.
Thus, Putin’s war against Ukraine is a war against a predominantly Christian people, a fact systematically overlooked by many Russian sympathizers who claim to be Christian. In the Russian attacks against the Ukrainian civilian population, attacks with thousands of victims, which the Kremlin deliberately directs against residential buildings, schools, hospitals, and also churches.
Nearly 600 Churches Have Been Attacked and 67 Clergy Killed by Russians
By March 2025, according to official Ukrainian Government data, Russia had attacked nearly 600 Christian churches in Ukraine. Similarly, a few months ago, the Ukrainian Government reported that Russia had murdered 67 priests and religious leaders of various denominations, again while many in the West looked the other way.
One of those killed was 59-year-old Ukrainian Orthodox priest Stepan Podolchak, kidnapped, tortured, and shot dead by the Russians in Kalanchak, Kherson, in February 2024. A few months earlier, in June 2023, the Russians murdered another Orthodox priest, Mykola Palagniuk, while delivering humanitarian aid to people affected by the floods caused by the Russians blowing up the Kakhovka Dam. He was 69 years old and was decapitated and had his arms amputated as a result of a Russian bombing.
Kidnapped and Tortured Priests and Banned Catholic Organizations
To the crimes against Christians, must be added the kidnapping and torture of two Catholic priests, Ivan Levitsky and Bohdan Geleta, by the Russians in November 2022 (they were held captive for 18 months) and the Russian persecution of some Christian churches. In December 2022, the Russians banned the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, a Roman Catholic Church, in the occupied territories. The ban included the Catholic organizations Caritas and the Knights of Columbus, which have been providing humanitarian aid to the Ukrainian people.
The Destruction of Mariupol Was Celebrated with Cries of «Allah Is Great»
Let’s not forget, moreover, events such as the celebration of the destruction of Mariupol with cries of «Allah is Great» by Russian soldiers of Chechen origin. Added to this is the fact that Russia has a considerable troop base in Muslim-majority Russian regions, such as Dagestan, Ingushetia, Chechnya, and Tatarstan, which perhaps explains the Russian army’s careful handling of mosques.
The Silence of Many Christians and the Infamous Support for Russia by Some
The constant Russian attacks on Christian churches and the torture and murders they have been committing against Christians in Ukraine would provide enough content for a long series of articles like this one. However, many Christian religious leaders have never mentioned them, nor have they issued any message of condemnation against these attacks, torture, and murders, not even a simple tweet.
Some Christian religious media systematically silence these events, for reasons they will one day have to explain to their readers. Likewise, there are Christian intellectuals and communicators who never say anything about these crimes and even support their leaders, trying to convince us that Russia is the Third Rome and the beacon that Christians must follow to free themselves from the vices of the decadent West, as if a Russia that breaks abortion records, invades a neighbouring country without provocation, and commits all kinds of war crimes were a role model for the followers of Christ.
These attitudes are even more inexplicable if we take into account that Russia has as allies some of the countries that most fiercely persecute Christians, such as North Korea (the country that tops the persecution lists every year), Communist China, the Islamist dictatorship of Iran and of Cuba. Dictatorships about which, astonishingly, some «Christians» who support Russia never say anything at all in relation to their crimes against Christians.
