The Russian Orthodox Church is supposed to bring people closer to God, not to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

And yet, that seems to be just what the ROC is doing under Patriarch Kirill. The leader of a church with as many as 160 million adherents has declared Russia’s fight to conquer Ukraine to be a “holy war.” It is not the most Christian of messages, and it is a belief that must be challenged in any way possible. 

Conservatives in America should not be fooled: Russia does not share their values, and in many instances acts in complete disrespect of them. It is exploiting them to influence U.S. policy toward the Kremlin’s interests.

Since February 2022’s full-scale invasion, the ROC has been one of Putin’s most vocal supporters, attempting to cast a sanctifying shadow over Moscow’s senseless invasion. The Church’s influence does not stop at Russia’s border. It has like-minded friends around the world, especially in the former Soviet space. 

Historically, Ukraine’s branch of the Orthodox Church took its lead from Moscow. It was only in 2018, amid escalating geopolitical tensions between the two countries, that the two officially split, with the de facto global leader of the Orthodox Church, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew, granting autonomy to the newly formed Orthodox Church of Ukraine. In response, the ROC severed ties with Bartholomew, with Putin calling the decision a “political maneuver” warranting “the most serious of consequences.”

Despite the formation of the OCU, Kirill’s influence lives on in a large rump organization, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. While the UOC renounced its ties to Moscow following the full-scale invasion and has seen thousands of parishes transfer to the OCU, the organization has continued to serve as a mouthpiece for Putin’s malicious propaganda. Since February 2022, Ukraine’s security services have launched 174 criminal proceedings against UOC clergy for crimes ranging from........

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