Human Dignity in Wartime: The Ukrainian Churches, Religious Freedom and National Security

Russia’s aggression against Ukraine—openly supported by the Russian Orthodox Church—has led the Ukrainian government in 2024 to adopt legislation banning religious communities formally affiliated with Moscow, framing the measure as a matter of national security. Although the ban has not been widely implemented, it has already sparked domestic and international debate, with the Kremlin portraying it as evidence of religious repression. For Ukraine’s religious communities, the situation presents a profound moral and political dilemma. The newly established Orthodox Church of Ukraine supports swift enforcement, while the Orthodox community historically linked to Moscow asserts its independence from Russia. Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and Muslims broadly endorse the “decolonization” of Ukrainian Orthodoxy and recognize the continuing threat to Ukrainian sovereignty, yet remain wary of state intervention in religious life and freedom of conscience. This lecture examines how religious communities in Ukraine seek to uphold human dignity and religious freedom amid war and inter-Orthodox conflict, and considers what these developments may mean for the country’s distinctive tradition of religious pluralism.

 

Pavlo Smytsnyuk is currently a Visiting Scholar at New York University’s Jordan Center, where he works on Eastern Christian political theology, religious nationalism, and peacebuilding. From 2019 to 2022, he served as Director of the Institute of Ecumenical Studies and Senior Lecturer at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, Ukraine. He holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford and has held research and teaching positions at Princeton University and George Washington University in Washington, D.C.