Religion, the Russian-Ukrainian War, and Social Media

Elizaveta Gaufman is Assistant Professor of Russian Discourse and Politics at the University of Groningen, Netherlands.

When I first discussed this post with Talk About editor Dmytro Vovk we lived in a different world. We chatted, exchanged screenshots, and I wondered whether my findings would even be interesting to the public. After all, pro-Kremlin social media users were not keen on invoking shared religion in conflict resolution and seemed to have drawn a line between Russians and Ukrainians. At the time of writing, the editor of this post is sheltering from air raids in Kharkiv with his family, and I am sending him daily messages hoping they are ok. What Putin’s regime is doing to Ukrainians is a crime. If those making decisions in the Kremlin actually did care about the common culture and religion that they claim to share with Ukrainians, they could at least remember “thou shalt not kill.”

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The End of Unity: How the Russian Orthodox Church Lost Ukraine

Regina Elsner is a Researcher at the Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS).

Since the end of the Soviet Union, dozens of theologians and scholars of religion elaborated on the complicated relationship within the church community of the so-called Holy Rus’. The Moscow Patriarchate defines its territory of spiritual responsibility in the borders of the Soviet Union—except for the old churches of Armenia and Georgia. The core of this spiritual community is Kyiv as the place of baptism of Rus’ in 988 and Moscow as the residency of the head of the church, today Patriarch Kirill. Bitter as it is, the territory of the Soviet Union was always closer to the ecclesiastical understanding of this sacred territory than the Russian Federation and its independent neighbor states, and the Russian Orthodox Church made comprehensive theological, historiographical, and political efforts to design the unity of the people in a new way.

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Too Soon to Say: International Criminal Law’s Role in the Conflict in Ukraine

Michelle Coleman is a Lecturer in Law at Swansea University.

On 24 February 2022, Russia launched a widescale invasion of Ukraine resulting in an ongoing armed conflict. Since that date, numerous sources have been quick to call for the investigation and possible prosecution of international crimes arising out of the conflict. These calls to action open questions about whether international criminal law is an appropriate tool during armed conflict and what investigation and prosecution might be able to accomplish.

International Criminal Law is a legal system designed to prosecute international crimes. General categories of international crimes include aggression, genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. These crimes are defined by customary law and the International Criminal Court, although the specific range of international crimes available can vary and depends on the particular jurisdiction that is engaging in the prosecution. Russia has already been publicly accused of aggression for their invasion; however, this alleged crime is unlikely to be prosecuted due to jurisdiction issues. Beyond the possibility of aggression as an initial potential crime, other international crimes may or may not be committed during the conflict. The existence of armed conflict is not by itself a crime.

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