Nicholas Denysenko 
The Church’s Unholy War 
Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine and Orthodoxy

How did religion contribute to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? Heated disputes and alienation among Orthodox Christians in Ukraine and Russia contributed to Russian aggression in Crimea and Donbas in 2014, and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This book examines attempts from the early twentieth century to the present day to liberate the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from Russian control. It explores the causes of bitter alienation, Russia’s use of soft power to maintain control, the development of hate speech used to discriminate against independent-minded Ukrainians, and the transition from soft to hard power from 2014 to the present.

Om författaren

Nicholas E. Denysenko is Emil and Elfriede Jochum Professor and Chair at Valparaiso University. He is the author of The Orthodox Church in Ukraine: A Century of Separation (2018).