Is Russia waging a “holy war”?
Ukrainecast
BBC
4.7 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 2 April 2024
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Last week the Russian Orthodox Church approved a document that branded the full-scale invasion of Ukraine a “holy war.”
So what role does religion play in the Ukraine war?
The BBC’s Harry Farley and Lucy Ash, the author of the upcoming book "The Baton and the Cross: Russia's church from Pagans to Putin", try to make sense of it all.
We also hear from Father Andriy Zelinskyy, chief military chaplain for the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church about how he offers spiritual guidance and comfort on the frontline.
Today’s episode is presented by Jamie Coomarasamy and Vitaly Shevchenko.
The producers were Arsenii Sokolov, Elliot Ryder and Ivana Davidovic. The technical producer was Ricardo McCarthy. The series producer is Tim Walklate. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
Email Ukrainecast@bbc.co.uk with your questions and comments. You can also send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram to +44 330 1239480
You can join the Ukrainecast discussion on Newscast’s Discord server here: tinyurl.com/ukrainecastdiscord
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:05.0 | It's 769 days since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, |
| 0:10.8 | and in recent days the Russian Orthodox Church has approved a document describing the full-scale |
| 0:15.5 | invasion as a holy war. |
| 0:17.8 | It was approved last week at a meeting chaired by Russia's top Orthodox cleric, Patrick Kirill. |
| 0:27.0 | The document also says that this holy war is being waged against a satanic west and it also states that the entire |
| 0:37.6 | territory of modern Ukraine should fall within the sphere of exclusive influence of Russia. |
| 0:45.7 | And knowing the history of what the Russian Orthodox Church has said and done, |
| 0:52.3 | what Patrick Kiril has said and done, what Patrick Kirill has said and done, this has come as no surprise to anyone at all. |
| 0:58.0 | Yeah, saying from the very beginning of this full-scale invasion, he's been talking about the war as a righteous war hasn't he talked |
| 1:05.3 | on the 6th of March 2022 forgiveness Sunday he said for eight years attempts have been |
| 1:10.2 | made to destroy what exists in Don Bass and in Don Bass there's a rejection, a |
| 1:14.3 | principled rejection of the so-called values that are offered today by those who claim global |
| 1:19.3 | power. He made comments towards the end of the year and then again last year I speak of this |
| 1:24.1 | boldly with full confidence that Russia is on the side of light so it's been very |
| 1:28.2 | much the rhetoric has been you know this is a holy water a just war and Russia is on the side of the just |
| 1:34.3 | and it can be said the Patriot Kirill and President Putin are quite literally |
| 1:40.1 | singing from the same hymn sheet we're gonna sing from the same hymn sheet. We're going to sing from the same hymn ship today because we're going to take a deeper look together at the role of religion in this war, aren't we? |
| 1:48.0 | We're going to ask how important Christianity is in Ukraine and in Russia and whether we should be calling this a holy war. |
| 1:56.0 | This is Ukraine. |
| 1:58.0 | Ukraine cast from BBC News. |
| 2:01.0 | Ukraine is an epicenter of unbearable heart rage and pain. |
... |
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