Russian war tears down religious sites in Ukraine!

Russian war tears down religious sites in Ukraine!

In the shadow of the ongoing Russian war of aggression, the religious infrastructure of Ukraine is seriously affected. According to a current statistics of the Ukrainian working group for the academic studies of religions, 604 churches and other religious facilities have so far been destroyed or damaged. The sacred buildings of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOK), which was released by Moscow Patriarchy in March 2022, are particularly strong. Of the damage, 317 buildings on the UOK. A report by Kathpress proves that Protestant Gotteshäuser (168), the autokephale Orthodox Church of Ukraine (56), as well as Jewish and Islamic sites are affected.

The religious landscape of Ukraine shows a complex picture. The largest religious community forms the Orthodox Church, which is historically shaped by divisions and mergers. The Orthodox Church of Ukraine was created in 2018 from the merger of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalia Orthodox Church. These developments are part of a long process with political and religious tensions, such as wikipedia . In addition to the Orthodox churches, there are also numerous Catholic and Protestant communities as well as smaller Buddhist and Islamic communities.

The entire region is affected by these numerous conflicts and religious diversity. Over 50 % of the population is committed to orthodoxy, while the proportion of Greek-Catholic believers dominates in the west of Ukraine. The ongoing war not only caused material damage, but also massively shaken the social and spiritual structures of Ukrainian society.