When U.S. President Donald Trump paused military aid to Ukraine last month, the man described as his "spiritual advisor," Pastor Mark Burns, backed the decision. This week, Burns is urging him to send Kyiv more tanks, fighter jets, and air defense. "I now believe that supporting Ukraine is America
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry on April 10 again denounced the religious persecution carried out by Russia in the occupied Ukrainian territories, accusing Moscow of killing dozens of clergy members and damaging hundreds of churches.
"The war in Ukraine is bigger than Democrats or Republicans, the Left or the Right. Whether you dislike President Trump or President (Volodymyr) Zelensky, real people are dying here," Pastor Mark Burns said.
When Oleg Rostovtsev hovered between life and death after a serious operation last April, he asked friends and family to do something that, until recently, had been impossible — to pray for him by reading the Tehillim, the Hebrew Book of Psalms, in Ukrainian. Hebrew or Ukrainian, he requested, just not
For a decade, the world has seen how Russia has scarred Ukraine’s landscape with tens of thousands of bombs and missiles. The spiritual wounds — and awakenings — experienced by millions of Ukrainians are less visible. Almost a third of Ukrainians say their religious faith has grown since the war broke
During a meeting that lasted 35 minutes, the pope reportedly presented Ukraine's head of state with a bronze bas-relief with a flower and an inscription, "Peace is a fragile flower."
When inaugurated, Ukraine-born Bishop Mykola Bychok will be one of the youngest members of the College and the only cardinal from the country.
On Thursday, a memorial service was held in Kyiv for Anton Samborskyi, the adopted son of Ukraine's Chief Rabbi Moshe Azman, who was killed in combat.
Metropolitan Kliment of Crimea and Simferopol of the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine, who currently serves in the Armed Forces, was beaten up by unknown assailants in Kyiv on Sept. 10, a church official confirmed for Suspilne.
Jewish pilgrims should refrain from visiting Uman for Rosh Hashanah, Jewish New Year, Cherkasy Oblast Governor Ihor Taburets warned on Sept. 10.
"They are barbarians," 80-year-old Mustafa Dzhemilev tells the Kyiv Independent on Sept. 2, as he assesses the damage caused to the Islamic Cultural Center in Kyiv by a Russian missile attack in the early hours of the morning. "If they targeted a children's hospital, why wouldn’t they destroy a
Pope Francis criticized on Aug. 25 Ukraine's move to potentially ban the activities of Russian-affiliated religious organizations amid Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, saying that "churches are not to be touched."
The legislation could effectively prohibit the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), which is legally subordinate to the Russian Orthodox Church.
Editor's note: The article was expanded with comments by religious scholar Oleksandr Brodetskyi. Ukraine's parliament passed on Aug. 20 a much-debated bill banning activities of religious organizations with ties to Russia, a country whose armies are currently occupying large swathes of Ukraine's land. The legislation – falsely spun by pro-Kremlin actors
The Ukrainian parliament on Aug. 20 passed a bill banning activities of religious organizations connected to Russia.
Lawmakers from several opposition parties – Holos (Voice), European Solidarity, and Batkivshchyna – blocked Ukraine's parliament rostrum on July 23 following the governing party's decision to not bring the bill on banning the Russian-linked church to the floor.
Former Deputy Prosecutor General Gyunduz Mamedov said, citing Metropolitan Klyment of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) Diocese in Crimea, that it was the last remaining OCU church in the occupied peninsula.
When Tucker Carlson, a popular American right-wing conservative, released an interview with lawyer Robert Amsterdam titled “Ukrainian churches are being burned and priests beaten,” it quickly gained traction with the so-called MAGA movement seeking the return of Donald Trump as president. The April interview was reposted as a YouTube short
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the archbishop of Constantinople and the most senior hierarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church, confirmed his participation in the upcoming peace summit in Switzerland, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on May 10.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) is carrying out searches on May 1 at Metropolitan Luka (Andrii Kovalenko) of the Moscow-linked Ukrainian church, a source in law enforcement agencies confirmed for the Kyiv Independent on May 1.
According to the investigation, Metropolitan Arsenii, who served in the Svyatohirsk Lavra in Donetsk Oblast, allegedly told parishioners the coordinates of Ukrainian military checkpoints in the Kramatorsk district in Donetsk Oblast during a liturgy.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) carried out searches at the premises of Archpriest Mykola Danylevych, a senior member of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), on the morning of April 12, sources in law enforcement agencies told the Kyiv Independent.
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), presented a "revolutionary" order on March 27: “The Present and Future of the Russian World.” The order claims: “From a spiritual and moral point of view, a special military operation (Russia’s term for its war against Ukraine)
Russia's war and occupation of large swaths of Ukraine have led to hundreds of churches being damaged or destroyed, dozens of priests killed or kidnapped, and entire religious groups that don't conform to Moscow's brand of Orthodoxy being banned. With entire Ukrainian cities being leveled by Russian artillery fire, religious
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) neutralized a pro-Russian disinformation group in Kyiv whose members included a senior cleric of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), the SBU's press service said on March 12.
The bill would prohibit the activities of any religious organizations affiliated with war propaganda or justifying the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Parliament passed the bill in the first reading in October 2023, and the secondary reading is to be held.
Dozens of people plunged into the icy waters of the Dnipro River on Jan. 19 in Kyiv's northern district of Obolon to celebrate Epiphany. The tradition to bathe in the freezing water of a river or lake comes from a popular belief that on this day, the water brings health
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