Study of 58 sermons traces Patriarch Kirill’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine

In a New Year’s service on 31 December 2021 at Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, told congregants that 2022 should be a year of peace. “Any violation of peace, which is the result of people’s cruelty, inflicts enormous damage on human life,” he told attendees. Just 55 days later, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The source reports that Kirill has since become one of the main advocates for the war, offering moral and ideological justification for what Russian authorities called a “special military operation.”

The source’s author reviewed the text of 58 sermons Kirill delivered between February 2022 and May 2023. Those sermons were preached to parishioners and also broadcast weekly to millions of viewers on the state-controlled Channel One programme *Word of a Pastor* (*Slovo pastyrya*). The author describes the church’s role in the war as more open than even critical observers might have expected, and identifies four recurring rhetorical themes in Kirill’s statements: downplaying peace, a metaphysical struggle myth, exhortation to sacrifice, and allusions to historic victories. According to the author, these themes overlap, and the emphasis on particular themes shifted with political circumstances.

The source traces much of this framing to the concept of *Russkiy mir* (“Russian world”). It states that the idea emerged in the early 1990s as a response to resentment over the collapse of the USSR and a desire to recreate a Russia that would be “politically and geographically bigger than the Russian Federation.” Over the following three decades, the source says, the term moved from a sphere of geopolitical influence toward the idea of a sacral land. Kirill has promoted this narrative, the author writes, by portraying Russia as a defender of traditional Christian values against Western liberalism and moral relativism.

According to the source, the *Russkiy mir* concept reaches beyond Russia’s borders to include territories tied to historical Russian influence, including Ukraine. The author argues that by describing the conflict as a battle for the soul of Russian civilisation, Kirill has given the war a veneer of divine legitimacy. The source also presents the church’s relationship with President Vladimir Putin as more complex than a simple one of subordination, saying the church has used its moral authority to reassert itself in the post-Soviet social landscape. The author argues that this agenda aligns with Putin’s stated ambitions and that the church’s endorsement of Russia’s actions in Ukraine serves both the Kremlin’s narrative and the church’s own regional interests.

The source describes a shift in the church’s language about peace. In early 2022, it says, Kirill modestly called for peace and urged a reduction in confrontation between Russians and Ukrainians. As the war continued, the author writes, these calls were increasingly aligned with Kremlin goals. In September 2022, during a mobilisation drive, Kirill argued against Western pacifism and called instead for a “justice-based” peace consistent with Russian political objectives. The lesson of honest peacemaking, set beside Kirill’s earlier New Year appeal, stands out in the sermon record the author describes (Matthew 5:9).

The source also reports the case of Yoann Koval, a priest at St. Andrew’s, who was defrocked after replacing the word “victory” with “peace” in a prayer. The author cites the case as evidence of the church’s firm opposition to pacifism and argues that, in step with state policy, the word “peace” has become almost unwelcome in the church’s rhetoric.

Source: Read the original report