Ukrainian churches voice ‘indignation’ as Russia strikes Kyiv during talks

The Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organisations said that ‘religious figures of the Russian Orthodox Church are moral accomplices in crimes against humanity’.

Churches in Ukraine condemned Russian allegations against the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and expressed “profound indignation” at the use of religion to justify the war.

The Council of Christian Churches of Ukraine published a statement on Friday, avowedly prompted by the “Report of the Foreign Intelligence Service” of the Russian Federation (SVR) published on 12 January and a statement issued on 15 January by Russia’s Christian Interconfessional Consultative Committee. 

The SVR document made unfounded accusations against Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, according to the Ukrainian churches, which described the public attack as “culturally and morally unacceptable”. Their statement said the claims were unprecedented in style and spirit, recalling “the worst examples of Bolshevik anti-religious propaganda” by which the Soviet regime sought to conceal systematic violations of human rights, terror and the persecution of religion.

“We stand in solidarity with Ukrainian society and our state in opposing the use by the authorities of the Russian Federation of religion and religious institutions as one of many instruments for inciting and justifying war,” the statement said.

Russia renewed its aerial attacks on Ukrainian cities last week, including strikes on the capital Kyiv and its critical infrastructure. Authorities reported that a missile and drone attack on Ukraine’s energy grid on Saturday cut power to 88,000 households in Kyiv and left the entire city of Chernihiv without electricity in the freezing temperatures. 

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Maxim Timchenko, the head of Ukraine’s largest private power producer DTEK, said the country is nearing a humanitarian catastrophe after months of Russian airstrikes on energy systems.

He said any future peace deal would depend on a halt to attacks on energy infrastructure, accusing Russia of waging an “energy terror” campaign since October 2025, targeting power stations and overwhelming air‑defence systems.

The Ukrainian Churches and Religious Organisations also demanded an immediate halt to Russian attacks against the civilian population and energy infrastructure after last week’s strikes.

“Such misanthropic actions by the Russian Federation unequivocally demonstrate that it is a terrorist state,” it said in a statement, warning state-sponsored religious groups of their complicity.

It said that “religious figures of the Russian Orthodox Church and other denominations, as well as Russian citizens who support and approve this war and the killing of Ukrainians, are moral accomplices in crimes against humanity”. 

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