Putin's challenge to Western democracy?

[The Liturgist]

Anti-war ? That's awful. Doesn't Kirill know that could land him to jail for up to 15 years ? Maybe someone should tell him ?

The remarks were, like those of all Russians who are not enthusiastic about the prospect of Novichok poisoning, sufficiently ambiguous, since while Putin wouldn’t dare arrest the Patriarch, accidents happen, seemingly more frequently to dissident Russians and also innocent bystanders caught in the middle (see Salisbury). Traditionally the Russian Orthodox Church has supported with some enthusiasm wars deemed just and needed for national defense, even World War II. So, the silence from senior Russian bishops on Ukraine is a very clear rebuke to Putin, especially since Ukrainian priests who are affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church, and also priests in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, which like the canonical Ukrainian church is an autonomous church under the Moscow Patriarchate, are openly criticizing the war.

Because you know, it should be pretty obvious that neither Patriarch Kyrill nor the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church want Ukrainian, Russian and Belarussian members of their church killing each other on the streets of Ukraine. They have a vested interest in procuring peace, as soon as possible.

I can’t stress this point enough: the largest number of casualties of this war are members of the very same church, either the Moscow Patriarchate or the Catholic Church (the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church, the Russian Catholic Church and the Roman Catholic Church; all are under the Pope, but the first three are sui juris Eastern Catholic Churches worshipping using the Byzantine Rite liturgy rather than the Western liturgy (on which the traditional Lutheran liturgy is based).

Indeed, to put it into perspective, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church, and the Catholic churches, which comprise the largest and second largest numbers of casualties among Christians, respectively, are more closely related than the Church of Sweden and the Church of Norway (of which I assume you are a member?).

 

[mindlight]

It’s hardly a surprise that people tend to squander freedom on frivolous things, or that some of them will then blame ‘the elites’ for their crappy lives. Chasing some chimera of ‘greatness’ as a response to that is equally stupid and meaningless. Forward focused nations like Iceland, Finland and NZ offer a much more realistic path to a sustainable future than the kind of schoolboy fantasy sold by Putin and his Orthodox sock puppets.

NZ, for example, aborts babies up to birth. Is ruled by an atheist and focused on material comfort. In some ways, this is a shallow vision of the future with deep imperfections.

 

[mindlight]

American "democracy" has been back-doored by its own government and private technological institutions by breaking the mind of its citizens with propaganda, inappropriate contentography, and high fructose corn syrup. The only way forward would be to collectively unshackle ourselves from the vile parasitic ruling class, but that would require people to come to terms with the reality that we are all modern day slaves, just with golden collars and lovely feather pillows. Unfortunately most people I know are ardent defenders of their own captors. Not to mention lovers of sin and depravity. There is little question God has forsaken this country.

That sounds quite Marxist in tone. Workers are exploited by a parasitic class of useless trust fund babies sort of thing. The problem is that Communism was not that good a corrective to this in practice and resulted in a different form of oppression and slavery. Russia today is ruled by kleptocratic superrich oligarchs. At least in the USA and indeed Europe governments that do not perform can be ousted. Europe is also more immune to this critique than the USA as it has proper comprehensive welfare, health and education systems, unlike the USA where there is a clear divide between rich and poor. So this critique provides no reason to prefer Russia over the USA but makes Europe look comparatively quite good.

 

[mindlight]

One could start by comparing the National Anthem of the USSR with National Anthem of the Federation of Russia.

The former is a tribute to Lenin and communism besides using "Fatherland".

The latter is more about the Motherland and freedom.

"Wide spaces for dreams and for living are opened for us by the coming years."

"From the southern seas to the polar lands,
spread our forests and fields,
you are unique in the world,
one of a kind."

I had a look at the lyrics of the new version. It mentions God once in its unsung second verse but is mainly a glorification of Russian nationalism. It describes the land quite well but could be distorting with a version of Russian exceptionalism built into it for instance:

Russia is our sacred state,
Russia is our beloved country.
A mighty will, great glory –
Your dignity for all time!

Chorus:
Be glorified, our free Fatherland,
The age-old union of fraternal peoples,
Ancestor-given wisdom of the people!
Be glorified, country! We are proud of you!

From the southern seas to the polar edge
Our forests and fields are spread out.
You are the only one in the world! You are the only one –
the native land so kept by God!

Chorus

A wide scope for dreams and for life
The coming years open to us.
We are given strength by our fidelity to the Fatherland.
So it was, so it is and it will always be so!

 

[mindlight]

We're all baddies, ... but in this case it's a matter of degree and kind. Russia's system (as led by Putin) leads to deprivation, control, and death. America's system has, for better or worse, been one which, at least offers a dream of a better life for its people.

If Putin wants to be seen as the head of a God-led movement, ... he had best stop trying to poison and imprison his naysayers ...

Truth does not thrive where naysayers are simply executed. America has its problems with partisan media but a trained and honest person can still find the truth and sift and sort sources of information. I prefer transparency and honesty and I do not think this thread would last on a Russian platform for very long. Putin has enriched Russia but most of the benefits have gone to a superrich class of oligarchs. The USA has seen a similar concentration of wealth in fewer hands recently.

 

[mindlight]

Putin is an Orthodox Christian, at least nominally. Putin was secretly baptized by his grandmother in the 1950's, and he attends church more often than many Russians or Orthodox in general (at the OCA church I went to... there were many that only went to church a few times a year. I've also known some Orthodox Christians that hardly ever attend church at all).

Putin and the Orthodox Church: how his faith shapes his politics

Cool link and it is sobering to think the man might actually be a Christian despite all of his faults. I guess membership in the kingdom is not about being perfect but rather trusting God.

It is also another reason why, despite Ukrainian and Russian obstinacy, this will come down to a compromise in the end. Both sides consider themselves to have some kind of Divine mandate to kill each other. But maybe the Russian claim on Donbas and Crimea is not completely illegitimate as well as the desire of the Ukrainians to be identified as a nation able to determine their own destiny. It is hard to see where a proper arbitrating perspective is coming from when both sides are so partisan and the only arbitrators are Muslim or Atheist regimes.

 

[mindlight]

Secularism in ungodly. Those who try mixing the two or try to claim righteousness merely because they use "God" in their rhetoric for their own purposes are far from truth. True Christianity has no boarders and no political affiliation. It is the Kingdom of God that rules over them with Jesus Christ of Nazareth as their KING. Blessings.

Yes and no. Yes to the fact that people call on God's name to justify their own actions too glibly and often conceal their own more worldly motives by doing so.

But no that there is no difference between the nations. We demonstrate our faith in our actions and some nations model those truths better than others. Germany models it far better than Russia or Ukraine or indeed the USA for instance.

 

[mindlight]

We don’t know that. For all we know this is a ploy to reinstate some kind of Stalinist Communism by the back door.




Putin has absolutely no authority to do that. Only the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople has ever revoked the autonomy of a church under their omophorion (the Russian Orthodox Exarchy in Europe, which was then received into the Moscow Patriarchate). This unprecedented action came on the heels of a bold declaration by a senior EP Archbishop that they have the sole right to grant and revoke autocephaly, which is completely false, just like their claims that the 2016 Council of Crete would be an “ecumenical council binding on all Orthodox Churches,” which resulted in several of the largest churches boycotting it.

Basically, what autonomy means in the context of Eastern Orthodoxy is simply that when Metropolitan Onuphrius dies, retires or otherwise reaches the end of his term in office, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church gets to approve his successor. Autonomous churches are canonically distinct entities, with their own Holy Synods, so for example, a priest who serves in ROCOR or the UOC must obtain a canonical release to serve in the MP proper, just like how a priest in the Church of Montengro has to obtain a release to serve in the Serbian Orthodox Church, or a priest in Patriarchate of Jerusalem must obtain a release to join the Church of Sinai. They also own their own property. Indeed, the Orthodox Church of Finland, which is autonomous and under the Ecumenical Patriarchate, is an official state church, along with the Lutheran Church of Finland, and is known for being pretty radical as Eastern Orthodox churches go, even to the extent of using the Gregorian Calendar even for setting the date of Pascha (Easter), for the convenience of the Finnish government in terms of coordinating things with the larger Lutheran church.

And seeing as revoking the Autonomy would result in a mass departure to the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s OCU (which claims to be autocephalous, but the Tomos of Autocephaly grants unprecedented authority to Constantinople, to the extent that I and many others regard the OCU as autonomous rather than autocephalous), which is trespassing on the canonical territory of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and also the schismatic UOC-Kiev Patriarchate, revoking the autonomy of the Ukrainian church is literally the last thing the Holy Synod of the Moscow Patriarchate would do.

I expect the Moscow Patriarchate would if need be grant Metropolitan Onuphrius and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church a Tomos of Autocephaly rather than risk the takeover of Eastern Orthodoxy in Ukraine by the EP and canonically irregular churches; they did after all grant the OCA autocephaly in 1970 (ROCOR at the time claimed to be de jure the legitimate Russian Orthodox Church and did not reconcile with the MP until 2007, by which time they were sure it was rid of communists).



As a generic Orthodox Christian presently involved in a Congregational ministry I stand with my Eastern Orthodox brothers and sisters in support of immediate peace and regard the current situation with pure horror; I am unable to support either Putin or Zelenskyy at this time as both have engaged in horrible conduct leading up to and during the war.

We all want peace and good to hear that Putin has no absolute influence on church structures. But in practice, if he conquered Ukraine the Russian Orthodox church would not be persecuted while Ukrainian versions would be.

 

[Tom 1]

What “Orthodox sock puppets”? I know of no Orthodox clergy who have explicitly endorsed the war (Patriarch Kyrill’s remarks could in fact be interpreted in an anti-war context), and many Ukrainian Orthodox priests in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is an autonomous part of the Russian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate, have condemned the war, with no repercussions.

Also, if the Moscow Patriarchate was really in Putin’s pocket, as some claim, they would surely recognize the autocephaly of the Abkhazian and South Ossetian Orthodox churches or incorporate them into their own church. Instead they regard them as schismatics intruding in the canonical territory of the Georgian Orthodox Church.

If they were / they would type arguments don’t hold any water, as you can make a better judgement based on what is actually happening, rather than on some random speculation. Kirill’s message is primarily nationalist, not Christian. It supports Putin’s notions of a greater Russia and the non-existence of a Ukrainian state.

 

[Tom 1]

NZ, for example, aborts babies up to birth. Is ruled by an atheist and focused on material comfort. In some ways, this is a shallow vision of the future with deep imperfections.

Bringing up abortion isn’t a get out of explaining your argument free card. To make that an honest argument, you’d have to provide a detailed explanation of why that outweighs the totality of human suffering under the kind of Stupidist dictatorship offered by the likes of Putin (in actual fact the dehumanisation that inevitably occurs when people reject personal responsibility in favour of a ‘strong leader’ actually leads to much higher rates of abortion, as a basic means of contraception, even when illegal as was the case in Romania and some other former Soviet states). What is your issue with a nation of mixed faiths and no faith being governed by an atheist? And governed is the word, ruled applies to the leadership style favoured but Putin, Trump etc where ruling is what is practised, not governance by consent. What is it that you think is ‘focused on material comfort’? Are you saying that the whole point of making societies more equal is so that people can have material comforts? Is this some notion you have about suffering making people more spiritual? What is shallow about any of it, and what are it’s ‘deep imperfections’?

 

[FireDragon76]

Cool link and it is sobering to think the man might actually be a Christian despite all of his faults. I guess membership in the kingdom is not about being perfect but rather trusting God.

And that is exhibit A of what I think is wrong with many Christians moral compasses. Butchers gets a free pass as long as they are on the right side.

Putin believes Christianity is full of magic baubles that can make you, or your country, more powerful. He's fascinated by superstition, coincidences, and numerology. Ukraine is his Spear of Longinus or Holy Grail. And it's not hard to see how this is so. For many Orthodox Christians, God is less a person they relate to, as in Evangelicalism, and more of a mysterious energy that can be imbued in holy objects or places.

 

[Robban]

I had a look at the lyrics of the new version. It mentions God once in its unsung second verse but is mainly a glorification of Russian nationalism. It describes the land quite well but could be distorting with a version of Russian exceptionalism built into it for instance:

Russia is our sacred state,
Russia is our beloved country.
A mighty will, great glory –
Your dignity for all time!

Chorus:
Be glorified, our free Fatherland,
The age-old union of fraternal peoples,
Ancestor-given wisdom of the people!
Be glorified, country! We are proud of you!

From the southern seas to the polar edge
Our forests and fields are spread out.
You are the only one in the world! You are the only one –
the native land so kept by God!

Chorus

A wide scope for dreams and for life
The coming years open to us.
We are given strength by our fidelity to the Fatherland.
So it was, so it is and it will always be so!

That is not the copy I was thinking of.

Nevermind, it is all about resourses,

Looking back in history, who in their right mind would
wage war when the prize is a desert?

 

[Robban]

That is not the copy I was thinking of.

Nevermind, it is all about resourses,

Looking back in history, who in their right mind would
wage war when the prize is a desert?

Mind you, on second thoughts,

if the desert contains plenty of black gold, oil,

could be something, but it it all boils down to resources.

 

[Robban]

Mind you, on second thoughts,

if the desert contains plenty of black gold, oil,

could be something, but it it all boils down to resources.

Aye, even humans are also considered a resource.

Slave trade, well someone has to pick the cotton.

Stalin had resources, millions, he sent them in, wave after wave, to a certain death.

And he issued an order, "Not one step back."

Oh my! what a fate, one step forward, a bullet,
one step back a bullet,
from commisaries.

Unbelieveable, that man has not learnt anything.

 

[The Liturgist]

But in practice, if he conquered Ukraine the Russian Orthodox church would not be persecuted while Ukrainian versions would be.

With respect, that’s not happening, because as I have explained, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the canonical one to which most Ukrainian Orthodox belong, is part of the Russian Orthodox Church. If Putin sought to persecute it he would be excommunicated. And the Russian Orthodox Church can’t revoke the autonomy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, nor would they, because this would require among other things integrating the diocesan structure and the hierarchy and would be an ecclesiastical nightmare, and it would also result in the Russian church becoming canonically isolated and losing its good relations with Georgia, Antioch, Bulgaria, Jerusalem, the Church of Greece, the Orthodox Church in America, to which it granted autocephaly, and other jurisdictions, and ROCOR, which the MP worked really hard to reunify with, would break away again and doubtless restore the prayer to the Great Litany that was present under Communism for the suffering Russian people.

As further proof that’s not happening, remember, the Russian Orthodox Church already refused to recognize the Abkhazian and South Ossetian Orthodox Churches, because they are the property of the canonical Church of Georgia, when Putin and Medvedev really wanted them to.

Right now the Russian Orthodox Church has become powerful enough not to remove Putin, but exists in a state not unlike that between the US and Russia before the annexation of Crimea. A state of cautious friendship, but with the potentiality for mutually assured destruction (the Russian Orthodox Church has a vested interest in not causing the collapse of a government that is not hostile to it, and Putin for his part does not dare risk alienating the Orthodox Church, whose members trust it more than him. Actually in Georgia and some other Eastern Orthodox Countries, the Church is much more widely trusted and respected than the government.

 

[The Liturgist]

And that is exhibit A of what I think is wrong with many Christians moral compasses. Butchers gets a free pass as long as they are on the right side.

Putin believes Christianity is full of magic baubles that can make you, or your country, more powerful. He's fascinated by superstition, coincidences, and numerology. Ukraine is his Spear of Longinus or Holy Grail. And it's not hard to see how this is so. For many Orthodox Christians, God is less a person they relate to, as in Evangelicalism, and more of a mysterious energy that can be imbued in holy objects or places.

Respectfully, I would ask you to edit that post, because I feel your argument is unfairly using not only Eastern Orthodox but Oriental Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglo Catholic, Old Catholic and Assyrian doctrines concerning icons and relics and the Patristic-Palamist doctrine of the essence/energies distinction to make a fallacious ad hominem political point which directly impacts all members of the above churches.

This argument is also fallacious considering we have no proof Putin is sincerely Orthodox, but we do know he was convincing enough of an atheist to get a top position in the KGB.

I expressed hope Putin was a Christian, and I hope he is, because it might restrain his actions and reduce the risk of atrocities on a larger scale, and from that, and mindlight’s reasonable reply, you’ve basically made an ad hominem argument against myself and also the world’s three most heavily persecuted denominations in the 20th and 21st centuries (the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Roman Catholics, all three of which were killed in the tens of millions by the Ottoman Empire and the Soviet Union and which continue to be the victims of mass murder, terror attacks, ethnic cleansing and attempted genocide in the Islamic countries).

 

[The Liturgist]

Kirill’s message is primarily nationalist, not Christian. It supports Putin’s notions of a greater Russia and the non-existence of a Ukrainian state.

All it explicitly stated was the brotherhood of the Ukrainian and Russian people, which is obvious, since part of the horror of this war is the fratricidal aspect.

 

[mindlight]

With respect, that’s not happening, because as I have explained, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the canonical one to which most Ukrainian Orthodox belong, is part of the Russian Orthodox Church. If Putin sought to persecute it he would be excommunicated. And the Russian Orthodox Church can’t revoke the autonomy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, nor would they, because this would require among other things integrating the diocesan structure and the hierarchy and would be an ecclesiastical nightmare, and it would also result in the Russian church becoming canonically isolated and losing its good relations with Georgia, Antioch, Bulgaria, Jerusalem, the Church of Greece, the Orthodox Church in America, to which it granted autocephaly, and other jurisdictions, and ROCOR, which the MP worked really hard to reunify with, would break away again and doubtless restore the prayer to the Great Litany that was present under Communism for the suffering Russian people.

As further proof that’s not happening, remember, the Russian Orthodox Church already refused to recognize the Abkhazian and South Ossetian Orthodox Churches, because they are the property of the canonical Church of Georgia, when Putin and Medvedev really wanted them to.

Right now the Russian Orthodox Church has become powerful enough not to remove Putin, but exists in a state not unlike that between the US and Russia before the annexation of Crimea. A state of cautious friendship, but with the potentiality for mutually assured destruction (the Russian Orthodox Church has a vested interest in not causing the collapse of a government that is not hostile to it, and Putin for his part does not dare risk alienating the Orthodox Church, whose members trust it more than him. Actually in Georgia and some other Eastern Orthodox Countries, the Church is much more widely trusted and respected than the government.

OK fair enough and well-argued. I think the point I am trying to drag out of this is how the unity of the church is linked in Putin's mind with the proposed unity of the triune peoples of Russia- as he put it in his manifesto for this war. The three members are Belorussia, Ukraine, and Russia. In this sense, he is echoing the unity and diversity of the Trinity with the proposed arrangement of the Russian peoples. He is trying to achieve unity of them by conquest but he thinks it is some kind of natural order that will become obvious to the people themselves once he has achieved it. It is a language unity, a cultural unity and he suggests a spiritual unity. It is being undermined by Polish Catholics who have always schemed against Russia and have used Ukraine as a pawn in that struggle.

Putin clearly thinks that it is Ukraine that is trying to break Orthodox unity by the ways in which they stress the autonomy of Ukraine's church.

Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians are all descendants of Ancient Rus, which was the largest state in Europe. Slavic and other tribes across the vast territory – from Ladoga, Novgorod, and Pskov to Kiev and Chernigov – were bound together by one language (which we now refer to as Old Russian), economic ties, the rule of the princes of the Rurik dynasty, and – after the baptism of Rus – the Orthodox faith. The spiritual choice made by St. Vladimir, who was both Prince of Novgorod and Grand Prince of Kiev, still largely determines our affinity today...
There is objective evidence that the Russian Empire was witnessing an active process of development of the Malorussian cultural identity within the greater Russian nation, which united the Velikorussians, the Malorussians and the Belorussians...
the situation in Ukraine today is completely different because it involves a forced change of identity. And the most despicable thing is that the Russians in Ukraine are being forced not only to deny their roots, generations of their ancestors but also to believe that Russia is their enemy. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the path of forced assimilation, the formation of an ethnically pure Ukrainian state, aggressive towards Russia, is comparable in its consequences to the use of weapons of mass destruction against us. As a result of such a harsh and artificial division of Russians and Ukrainians, the Russian people in all may decrease by hundreds of thousands or even millions...
Our spiritual unity has also been attacked. As in the days of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a new ecclesiastical has been initiated. The secular authorities, making no secret of their political aims, have blatantly interfered in church life and brought things to a split, to the seizure of churches, the beating of priests and monks. Even extensive autonomy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church while maintaining spiritual unity with the Moscow Patriarchate strongly displeases them. They have to destroy this prominent and centuries-old symbol of our kinship at all costs...
I am confident that true sovereignty of Ukraine is possible only in partnership with Russia. Our spiritual, human and civilizational ties formed for centuries and have their origins in the same sources, they have been hardened by common trials, achievements and victories. Our kinship has been transmitted from generation to generation. It is in the hearts and the memory of people living in modern Russia and Ukraine, in the blood ties that unite millions of our families. Together we have always been and will be many times stronger and more successful. For we are one people.

On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians - Wikisource, the free online library

 

[mindlight]

And that is exhibit A of what I think is wrong with many Christians moral compasses. Butchers gets a free pass as long as they are on the right side.

Putin believes Christianity is full of magic baubles that can make you, or your country, more powerful. He's fascinated by superstition, coincidences, and numerology. Ukraine is his Spear of Longinus or Holy Grail. And it's not hard to see how this is so. For many Orthodox Christians, God is less a person they relate to, as in Evangelicalism, and more of a mysterious energy that can be imbued in holy objects or places.

This life is just the test for real life to come. The only way to pass it is to trust in Christ. At least Putin might have that measure of credibility but then so too do Biden and many, though far from all, of the Western leaders. It is the most important question I ask of any leader and it is why Macron and so many in the German government were so foolish and misguided on this matter coming into this crisis. Scholz seems to have some wisdom and is making all the right decisions since this invasion. He at least has some kind of faith to keep him anchored in reality. As to Putin's actions and fruit, we may well be in more agreement.

 

[The Liturgist]

OK fair enough and well-argued. I think the point I am trying to drag out of this is how the unity of the church is linked in Putin's mind with the proposed unity of the triune peoples of Russia- as he put it in his manifesto for this war. The three members are Belorussia, Ukraine, and Russia. In this sense, he is echoing the unity and diversity of the Trinity with the proposed arrangement of the Russian peoples. He is trying to achieve unity of them by conquest but he thinks it is some kind of natural order that will become obvious to the people themselves once he has achieved it. It is a language unity, a cultural unity and he suggests a spiritual unity. It is being undermined by Polish Catholics who have always schemed against Russia and have used Ukraine as a pawn in that struggle.

Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians are all descendants of Ancient Rus, which was the largest state in Europe. Slavic and other tribes across the vast territory – from Ladoga, Novgorod, and Pskov to Kiev and Chernigov – were bound together by one language (which we now refer to as Old Russian), economic ties, the rule of the princes of the Rurik dynasty, and – after the baptism of Rus – the Orthodox faith. The spiritual choice made by St. Vladimir, who was both Prince of Novgorod and Grand Prince of Kiev, still largely determines our affinity today...
There is objective evidence that the Russian Empire was witnessing an active process of development of the Malorussian cultural identity within the greater Russian nation, which united the Velikorussians, the Malorussians and the Belorussians...
the situation in Ukraine today is completely different because it involves a forced change of identity. And the most despicable thing is that the Russians in Ukraine are being forced not only to deny their roots, generations of their ancestors but also to believe that Russia is their enemy. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the path of forced assimilation, the formation of an ethnically pure Ukrainian state, aggressive towards Russia, is comparable in its consequences to the use of weapons of mass destruction against us. As a result of such a harsh and artificial division of Russians and Ukrainians, the Russian people in all may decrease by hundreds of thousands or even millions...
Our spiritual unity has also been attacked. As in the days of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a new ecclesiastical has been initiated. The secular authorities, making no secret of their political aims, have blatantly interfered in church life and brought things to a split, to the seizure of churches, the beating of priests and monks. Even extensive autonomy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church while maintaining spiritual unity with the Moscow Patriarchate strongly displeases them. They have to destroy this prominent and centuries-old symbol of our kinship at all costs...
I am confident that true sovereignty of Ukraine is possible only in partnership with Russia. Our spiritual, human and civilizational ties formed for centuries and have their origins in the same sources, they have been hardened by common trials, achievements and victories. Our kinship has been transmitted from generation to generation. It is in the hearts and the memory of people living in modern Russia and Ukraine, in the blood ties that unite millions of our families. Together we have always been and will be many times stronger and more successful. For we are one people.

On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians - Wikisource, the free online library

I would say Putin’s Pan-Slavism would be laudable if he had not resorted to a military invasion to achieve it.

By the way, it is a fact that the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and later the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, did horribly oppress the Ruthenian, or Carpatho-Rusyn, people, and the Western Ukrainians, by forcing them to submit to the Pope of Rome* and denying them political self-determination. Ironically Putin is now pursuing the same course of action.

*which is the origin of the Byzantine Catholic churches; in North America, abuse of the Byzantine Catholic clergy by Roman Catholic clergy, specifically, a decree requiring married Byzantine Catholic priests who emigrated to North America to divorce their wives, resulted in a mass conversion to the Russian Orthodox Church; in particular, many OCA parishes in the Northeast are comprised of former Ruthenian Greek Catholics, you can usually tell these because they are called “Russian Greek Orthodox” or “Russian Greek Catholic Orthodox.”