There is a stereotype that the conflict in Ukraine is about most things, but not religion.
But since the outbreak of conflict last year, reports of religious persecution in the Donbas region have continued to emerge. Cross the border into Russia, where calls ring out to protect the Orthodox faith from the advances of decadent Europe, or dig a little deeper into the zone of the Anti-Terrorist Operation, and you find another strand to this conflict—inter-confessional strife.
A deepening divide
Since Ukraine gained independence in 1991, the Ukrainian Orthodox Churches of the Kiev and the Moscow Patriarchates have been the country’s largest confessions. Other Christian confessions include the Autocephalous Orthodox Church, the Greek Catholic Church, as well as Protestants, Catholics and various evangelists.
