Russia's invasion of Ukraine has a religious element to it.

For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with the point.

In 2019, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine officially split from the Russian Orthodox Church.

Now, obviously, the political and religious history of this region goes back far beyond that.

But it should be noted that one of the ways Vladimir Putin justified his invasion of Ukraine

was by claiming that he was fighting

for, quote, the religious soul of Ukraine.

And prior to the invasion, a strong indicator of his ultimate intentions is that Jews, Muslims,

and Protestants were all reporting religious oppression in those parts of Ukraine under Moscow's

control.

In other words, restrictions on religious freedom came first.

Unprovoked invasions, genocide, totalitarian tendencies,

these are the things that most often draw the world's attention to a part of the world.

It says that something's wrong.

A better canary in the coal mine for geopolitical conflict is religious persecution.

That's because religious freedom is the first freedom,

and when it falls, so do all the others.

For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with The Point.