Faith and Nation: The Role of Religion in Ukrainian Identity and Resistance

Since the outbreak of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, religion has emerged as a powerful pillar of Ukrainian national resilience. From Orthodox priests blessing soldiers on the front line to interfaith chaplains comforting displaced families, the spiritual dimension of Ukrainian identity has played a crucial, if complex, role in mobilising resistance. The religious landscape of Ukraine, deeply shaped by centuries of imperial domination and ecclesiastical rivalry, has become an arena where questions of sovereignty, culture, and national purpose are fervently contested.

Here we explore how religion — and in particular Orthodox Christianity — has both reflected and shaped Ukraine’s struggle for self-determination, focusing on its evolution from the Soviet period through to the present war.

Historical Roots of Faith and Identity

Religion has long served as a cultural anchor in Ukrainian history. Since the baptism of Kyivan Rus in 988, Eastern Orthodox Christianity has functioned as a central force in shaping collective identity across the lands that now make up Ukraine. Over centuries of shifting borders and imperial rule — by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Russian Empire, and the Soviet Union — religious institutions often preserved the Ukrainian language, folklore, and customs.

However, this religious tradition was frequently co-opted by external powers. Under Tsarist rule, the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) was used as an instrument to promote Russification. In the Soviet era religious expression was violently suppressed across all confessions, with churches closed, clergy imprisoned and atheism imposed by state decree. Yet faith endured, often clandestinely, becoming a quiet form of cultural resistance.

Following Ukraine’s independence in 1991 religion re-emerged into public life, with a proliferation of churches, seminaries, and renewed debates over ecclesiastical allegiance — especially within Orthodox Christianity.

Orthodoxy, Autocephaly, and the National Church

The Orthodox Church in Ukraine is divided into several jurisdictions, but two have been particularly central to national identity:

• The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), historically subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate (ROC).

  
  

• The Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), established in 2018 with the support of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

The granting of autocephaly (independence) to the OCU by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in 2019 marked a seismic moment in Ukraine’s spiritual and geopolitical orientation. It was more than a theological decision; it was a declaration of cultural and national sovereignty. The Russian Orthodox Church, seeing the move as a threat to its influence, thereupon broke communion with Constantinople.

For many Ukrainians, particularly in western and central regions, the creation of the OCU was a step toward disentangling the nation from Russia’s historical dominance, both politically and religiously. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko described it at the time as “the final independence from Russia”.

Faith on the Front Lines

Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, religious leaders and institutions have played active roles in supporting Ukraine’s war effort and civil morale.

• Military chaplains from both Orthodox and Catholic traditions serve on the front lines, offering spiritual and psychological support to soldiers.

  
  

• Religious communities have opened their facilities to serve as shelters, food kitchens, and aid centres for the displaced.

  
  

• National days of prayer and ecumenical services have been used to rally the population and promote unity across denominations.

Notably the OCU has conducted funeral rites for fallen soldiers, blessed weapons and defensive structures and publicly condemned Russia’s invasion as a war of aggression. The church’s head, Metropolitan Epiphanius, has explicitly framed the war as a struggle of good against evil, casting Ukrainian resistance in moral and even sacred terms.

By contrast, the UOC (Moscow Patriarchate) has faced growing suspicion. While it declared its independence from Moscow in 2022, critics note that many of its clergy continue to express pro-Russian sympathies or evade condemnation of the Kremlin’s actions. Several UOC priests have been arrested by Ukrainian authorities on charges of collaboration with Russian forces, intensifying public pressure for the church’s disestablishment.

Interfaith Solidarity and Pluralism

Ukraine’s religious landscape is not only Orthodox. Greek Catholics, Roman Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and Muslims all have active roles in Ukrainian civil society. The war has fostered interfaith cooperation rarely seen in previous decades:

• The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, centred in Lviv, has vocally supported the army, hosted refugees and coordinated international Catholic aid.

  
  

• Muslim leaders, particularly of the Crimean Tatar community, have condemned the Russian occupation of Crimea and called for resistance.

  
  

• Jewish leaders, including Chief Rabbi Moshe Reuven Azman, have organised evacuations, humanitarian aid and issued calls for international solidarity.

These groups see the defence of Ukraine not only as a political necessity but as a defence of a multiethnic, multireligious society against authoritarian homogenisation. In this sense, religion in Ukraine today functions more as a unifier of diversity than a divider of denominations.

The Kremlin’s Weaponisation of Religion

The role of religion in Ukrainian resistance must be understood in direct contrast to its role in Russian propaganda. The Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church have fused religious symbolism with political ideology, framing the invasion as a spiritual mission to “protect Orthodox civilisation” and fight Western decadence. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow has publicly blessed the Russian war effort, portraying it as a holy crusade against sin and NATO.

This imperial theology attempts to delegitimise Ukrainian identity as artificial and “schismatic”, denying the OCU’s legitimacy and Ukraine’s right to spiritual self-rule. In response, Ukrainian religious figures have explicitly rejected religious imperialism, asserting the sacredness of national sovereignty.

Religion and National Consciousness

Today for many Ukrainians, faith and national identity are deeply intertwined. Public opinion polls show that:

• A growing majority identify with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine rather than the Moscow-aligned UOC.

  
  

• Even among secular citizens, churches are seen as moral anchors and humanitarian actors.

  
  

• Religious holidays and symbols — especially Easter, Christmas, and the Feast of St. Michael, patron saint of Kyiv — have gained patriotic significance.

While Ukraine remains a secular state, religion’s symbolic and emotional power has been central to its national revival. Icons, prayers, and saints are as present in the trenches as they are in homes and city squares.

Conclusion: A Sacred Struggle for Freedom

Religion in Ukraine today is not a relic of the past but a living force of unity, courage, and moral clarity. It has helped to consolidate a sense of national identity rooted in resistance, cultural pride and democratic aspiration. The war has deepened the spiritual rift with Russia, transforming ecclesiastical divisions into a broader civilisational choice.

As Ukraine looks to the future — towards peace, recovery, and European integration — religion will likely continue to shape the soul of the nation: not in the form of state imposition, but as a pluralistic, mobilising source of resilience, built on centuries of endurance and the sacredness of human dignity.

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Reading Lists

Academic and Scholarly Books

1. Catherine Wanner, Communities of the Converted: Ukrainians and Global Evangelism (Cornell University Press, 2007)

   – Explores the rise of Protestant and Evangelical movements in post-Soviet Ukraine and how they contribute to national and spiritual identity.

2. Catherine Wanner, Everyday Religiosity and the Politics of Belonging in Ukraine (Cornell University Press, forthcoming)

   – Wanner is one of the foremost scholars on religion in Ukraine; this work (some available in articles) examines how religion intersects with belonging and nationhood.

3. John-Paul Himka, Ukrainians, Jews, and the Holocaust: Divergent Memories (University of Nebraska Press, 2021)

   – Includes reflection on religious narratives and memory in shaping Ukrainian national history and identity.

4. José Casanova & Volodymyr Khroul (eds.), Religion and Public Life in Post-Communist Societies (Social Science Research Council, 2011)

   – Includes case studies on Ukraine and the post-Soviet religious revival.

Journal Articles and Policy Papers

5. Taras Kuzio, “The Rise and Fall of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate): Religious Imperialism and the Decline of Russian Soft Power”

   Religion, State and Society, Vol. 51, No. 1, 2023

   – Analyses how the war has affected the UOC-MP’s legitimacy and Russia’s religious soft power.

6. Elizabeth Cullen Dunn, “Religion in Ukraine’s War: More Than a Mobilizing Tool”

   Foreign Affairs, 2023

   – Brief but sharp overview of how religious belief and identity play into the war.

7. Atlantic Council, Religion as a Tool of Russian Influence in Ukraine (2022)

   – A think tank report on how the Kremlin has used religious institutions to shape public opinion and disrupt Ukrainian sovereignty.

8. Andrii Krawchuk, “Orthodoxy, Autocephaly, and National Identity in Ukraine”

   Canadian Slavonic Papers, Vol. 58, Nos. 1–2, 2016

   – Offers essential background on the theological and national implications of autocephaly.

Journalistic and Popular Sources

9. The Economist, “Ukraine’s War Has Deepened a Religious Schism” (2023)

   – Explains the sociopolitical consequences of the split between the OCU and UOC.

10. BBC News, “Faith and the Front Line: Ukraine’s Chaplains Bring More than Religion” (2023)

    – Human-centered stories from the frontlines, highlighting spiritual care as a component of morale.

11. New York Times, “A Religious War? The Role of the Russian Church in the Ukraine Conflict” (2022)

    – Good introduction for general readers on how the Russian Orthodox Church legitimises the war.

Primary Sources and Institutional Documents

12. Tomos of Autocephaly for the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (January 2019)

    – Official declaration from the Ecumenical Patriarch granting independence to the OCU. Available in English translation.

13. Statements from the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organisations

    – Regularly published declarations on war, peace, and interfaith unity. Accessible via the official AUCCRO website.