Focus on Ukraine
We strongly condemn Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and declare our unreserved solidarity with the Ukrainian people in their heroic defensive struggle against the Russian aggressor.
Russia's war against Ukraine has been going on since February 2014, when Russia occupied Crimea with its troops and started the war in eastern Ukraine. Vladimir Putin did not want to accept the changes brought about by the Euromaidan in 2013/14 in terms of democratization and the western orientation of Ukraine. The large-scale invasion on February 24, 2022 is a continuation of this imperialist policy.
The war affects in many ways the churches and many of our colleagues. In Ukraine, two Orthodox churches, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, are in competition with each other. Against the backdrop of Russia's war of aggression, the question of loyalty to the Ukrainian nation and the Ukrainian state is at the forefront. With regard to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, much of the discussion revolves around the question of the extent to which a separation from the Moscow Patriarchate, to which it previously belonged as an autonomous church, has actually taken place since May 2022. In Russia, the Russian Orthodox Church uses anti-liberalism and cultural imperialism as arguments for war, while at the same time persecuting and punishing criticism of the war among priests and theologians. International ecumenical relations have not yet been able to exert any mediating or de-escalating influence.
At the Chair of Eastern Church Studies and Ecumenics, we deal with current (ecclesiastical) developments in and around Ukraine from both an Eastern Church Studies and peace ethics perspective. In addition to the developments in Ukraine itself, we also look at the developments in the Russian Orthodox Church and the community of the Orthodox Church worldwide, as well as the actions of the Western churches in the face of the Russian war of aggression.
On this page we would like to give you an insight into our work and refer you to further information and support possibilities.
Bulletin on the Occasion of the Second Anniversary of Russia's Invasion of Ukraine [23.02.2024]
