US President Joe Biden has condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin for his country’s invasion of Ukraine. He then referred to Putin as a “murderous despot” and “pure thug.” Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, says he is “prepared for conversations” with Putin. The concern today is what Biden’s views — and those of others — signal for the future of the Ukraine conflict. What does President Putin anticipate when he behaves adolescent-like? The Ukrainian people have historically been fearless. Some Ukrainians have relatives in Russia, but they cannot obtain accurate information due to state-controlled media. The Ukrainian people and the Russian people in Russia should be free to think for themselves. Why should one individual dictate what they should consider? One day, the Russian people will rise up against such activities and liberate themselves from their ignorance.
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Several officials of the Orthodox Church have expressed their opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. With the noteworthy exception of the Orthodox patriarch of Moscow, the military intervention has been rejected by the majority of people.
Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I, shown leading a service with at the Patriarchal Church of St. George in Istanbul on March 6, has said that Russia’s attack on Ukraine is a ‘violation of human rights.’ (photo: YASIN AKGUL / AFP via Getty Images)
The leader of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate has urged Russian President Vladimir Putin for an “early cessation of the fratricidal conflict.” According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Russian invasion of Ukraine was the greatest conventional military operation in Europe since World War II. With staunch defiance, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has resisted Russian military intervention in his nation since 2014. As a result, the death toll has risen to tens of thousands, with 2.5 million people fleeing to neighboring nations like Poland, Hungary, Moldova, Slovakia, and Romania.
Theodore II, the Orthodox patriarch of Alexandria and all of Africa, has said that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “drunk on power” and “the emperor of our times.” Patriarch Daniel of Romania, the patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, has called for an “immediate cessation of hostilities” in Ukraine. On February 24, Georgian Patriarch Illia II issued a dire warning about a “global calamity” and remembered Russia’s invasion of his nation in 2008. In early March, more than 275 Russian Orthodox priests and deacons from all across the globe signed an open letter. The Russian Orthodox Church has produced a series of remarks in which it expresses implicit support for the Ukrainian invasion while refraining from condemning the Russian government in any manner.
After giving an anti-war sermon in Moscow, Father Ioann Burdin, a Russian Orthodox priest, was detained. He appealed for the restoration of peace and unity with Metropolitan Onufry in a sermon delivered on February 27. He did not mention the separatist Orthodox Church in Ukraine, which he described as “a schism.” Many of Putin’s justifications for invading Ukraine, particularly those related to NATO expansion, received backing from the Russian patriarch. According to reliable sources, Orthodox clergy and faithful in Ukraine have voiced their displeasure of Patriarch Kirill’s stance on the issue. Father Stefano Caprio said that the Ukrainian conflict generates a “deep divide” in the Orthodox Church in the United States.
Patriarch Kirill cannot break away from Putin because “he would bring the whole palace crashing down,” as he puts it. Some other autocephalous Orthodox churches, particularly those politically and ecclesiastically aligned with the patriarch, support the patriarch.
The Kremlin has dispatched two distinct groups of mercenaries to Kyiv to assassinate the Ukrainian President. According to The Times of London, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has survived at least three targeted assassination attempts in the last week.
Since Russia’s unprovoked war on its western neighbor began last week, Zelenskyy has conducted business from a handful of bunkers scattered throughout the nation’s capital, having declined an offer from the United States to evacuate him. As a result, he is vulnerable to assassination attempts by teams of Kremlin-backed assassins. Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, told a Ukrainian television network that anti-war elements within Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) were instrumental in foiling several plots. Zelenskyy acknowledged in a defiant speech last week that he is “target No. 1” to “damage Ukraine politically by assassinating the head of state.” “However, we are not afraid of anything,” he stated. “We have no qualms about defending our country. We have no apprehensions about Russia.”
Last month, US officials warned that Russian forces had compiled a hit list of Ukrainian citizens murdered or detained in detention camps. According to reports, the Kremlin has dispatched two distinct groups of mercenaries to Kyiv in an attempt to carry out that directive. One is being organized by the Wagner Group, a private military contractor headed by Yevgeny Prigozhin, dubbed “Putin’s Chef.” The other is a group of elite Chechen fighters that Ramzan Akhmadovich Kadyrov’s Chechen Republic controls. Danilov stated on Tuesday that a Chechen assassination attempt over the weekend failed and that the group responsible had been “destroyed.” Among those killed by Ukrainian forces was Chechen-Russian Gen. Magomed Tushayev, who faces charges of torturing and murdering LGBTQ+ people in Chechnya. “As we have seen in the past, we anticipate Russia will attempt to coerce cooperation through intimidation and repression,” a US official told Foreign Policy on condition of anonymity. “These acts, which have included targeted killings, kidnappings/forced disappearances, detentions, and the use of torture in previous Russian operations, would almost certainly target those who oppose Russian actions, including Russian and Belarusian dissidents in exile in Ukraine, journalists and anti-corruption activists, as well as vulnerable populations such as religious and ethnic minorities and LGBTQI+ individuals.”
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