TetleysTLDR: The Summary

Putin’s “holy war” is a fraud. He’s using the Russian Orthodox Church to rebrand an illegal invasion of Ukraine as a sacred mission, with Patriarch Kirill blessing tanks and parroting Kremlin propaganda about “traditional values.” This ties neatly into the global alt-right, which sees Russia as a model of authoritarian Christian nationalism.Ukraine has fought back spiritually as well as militarily. It moved Christmas from January 7th to December 25th to break with Moscow’s calendar and align with Europe. It also has an independent Orthodox Church and is even discussing replacing the Cyrillic alphabet with the Latin script, following the example of Moldova and the Baltic states, as another way of rejecting Russian influence.Bottom line: Putin dresses up conquest in religion, but it’s still an illegal invasion. Ukraine, meanwhile, is stripping away Moscow’s grip on faith, culture, and identity, and rooting itself firmly in Europe.

^{Putin’s Holy War: How the Kremlin Co-opts the Church to Mask an Illegal Invasion}

When Vladimir Putin ordered the full‑scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he did not just roll tanks across borders. He also rolled the Russian Orthodox Church into battle, weaponising faith to cloak naked aggression in a mantle of divine inevitability.

Patriarch Kirill, head of the Moscow Patriarchate, quickly fell into line. He blessed the troops, endorsed the war as a metaphysical struggle against Western 'decadence' and spun a narrative in which Russia was not committing war crimes but defending 'Holy Rus’. 

It is a neat trick: transform an illegal invasion, condemned by the UN and international law, into a sacred mission. If opposition to Putin is treason, then opposition to Putin’s war is framed as blasphemy.

The Alt-Right in Vestments

Putin’s regime has spent years presenting itself as the guardian of so‑called 'traditional values' in opposition to liberal democracy. This is where the overlap with the Western alt‑right comes in.  By wrapping homophobia, misogyny, and authoritarian nationalism in religious iconography, the Kremlin offers itself as a model to the American Christian right, Marine Le Pen in France, Orbán in Hungary, and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK fellow‑travellers. In this twisted propaganda world viewed firmly through the looking glass, Russia isn’t the aggressor: it’s the last bastion of family, faith, and civilisation, under siege by LGBT rights, feminism, and multiculturalism.  The Church becomes the Kremlin’s megaphone, preaching not Christianity but a reactionary culture war with guns and tanks attached.

This is why Putin leans on the Church so heavily. He knows that a simple nationalist land‑grab doesn’t sell well at home or abroad.  But a 'holy war' against 'godless liberalism'? That resonates with both conservative Russians and international fellow‑travellers in the global alt‑right ecosystem. 

Not so 'nice one Kirill'

There are some pretty jaw‑dropping WTF‑level examples of where Patriarch Kirill crossed the line from spiritual leader into a full-on Kremlin propagandist, co‑opting theological language to sanctify the war.  Here is just a couple:

_{1. "A metaphysical battle against gay parades and decadent Western values" — 6 March 2022}

In a sermon delivered on 6 March 2022, on Forgiveness Sunday, Kirill framed the invasion not as mere geopolitics, but a metaphysical struggle against a 'godless international order'. He warned believers that the Western model of 'excess consumption' and 'visible freedom’, embodied by gay pride parades, symbolised the corruption Russia was fighting. The Week

_{2. "Military duty washes away all sins": 25–26 September 2022}

In the wake of Putin’s announcement of partial mobilisation, Kirill delivered a sermon on Sunday, September 25, 2022, declaring that those who die fulfilling their military duty commit an act 'tantamount to a sacrifice' and thus 'this sacrifice washes away all the sins that a person has committed'.  He even likened it to Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. Radio Free Europe One report summed up: “Patriarch Kirill … told his followers that ‘sacrifice in the course of carrying out your military duty washes away all sins.’” Radio Free Europe

_{3. Declaring it a 'Holy War': March 2024}

At the World Russian People’s Council in March 2024, the Russian Orthodox Church under Kirill’s leadership officially labeled the invasion a 'Holy War'.  The document described the 'special military operation' as a spiritual defense of 'Holy Russia' against a Western globalism that 'has fallen into Satanism'. It also asserted that the entire territory of Ukraine should enter Russia’s sphere of exclusive influence, reducing Ukrainians and Belarusians to sub‑ethnic status beneath Russians. Wikipedia

What makes all this so utterly messed up is that Kirill has hijacked the language of faith — redemption, sacrifice, salvation and repurposed it as a recruitment tool for Putin’s war machine.  Instead of offering consolation or a moral compass, he’s telling young men that dying in Ukraine is not only patriotic but a fast-track to heaven, effectively sanctifying slaughter.  When the head of a major church calls a 21st-century invasion a 'Holy War' and claims killing and dying will 'wash away sins', it ceases to be religion and becomes state propaganda in vestments.  It’s a grotesque perversion of Christianity, where the Sermon on the Mount is replaced with a call to arms, and the Beatitudes are drowned out by the blast of artillery.  Kirill isn’t guiding souls, he’s blessing body bags.

Kyiv with Moscow: Including Christmas

For Ukrainians, the war has been not only about sovereignty and survival but also about reclaiming cultural and spiritual independence from Moscow. For centuries, the Russian Orthodox Church used its authority to bind Ukraine within a 'Russian world'. That grip has been loosening for years, accelerated by war. In 2019, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) was granted Autocephaly (independence) by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, a move furiously opposed by Moscow.

In 2023, Ukraine took another powerful symbolic step: moving the celebration of Christmas from January 7th (the date observed by the Moscow Patriarchate and rooted in the old Julian calendar) to December 25th (the Gregorian calendar date used by most of the Christian world).  It wasn’t just a calendar tweak.  It was a rejection of Russia’s religious colonisation.  

Celebrating Christmas alongside the global Christian community rather than Moscow was a declaration that Ukraine’s future lies with Europe, not under Putin’s shadow. That decision also reflected the lived reality of war.  While Moscow used the Church to sanctify missiles and conscription, Ukrainians reclaimed their faith traditions from the Kremlin’s chokehold, asserting that Christianity does not belong to a dictator and his pet patriarch.

The False Sanctity of Invasion

The brutal reality remains: Putin’s invasion is illegal, a violation of the UN Charter and basic international law.  No number of icons, censers, or sermons can disguise that fact.  War crimes committed in Bucha, Mariupol, and across Ukraine cannot be scrubbed clean by incense.

For Putin, co‑opting the Church is about narrative control.  He offers Russians a choice: believe that your sons die for empire or believe they die for God.  The latter is easier to stomach.  This strategy also strengthens Putin’s ties with the global alt‑right.  By presenting himself as the spearhead of a 'Christian civilisation' under siege, he makes Russia an ideological home for far‑right culture warriors in the US and Europe.  It’s not geopolitics, it’s a cynical propaganda theatre in which Moscow plays Jerusalem.

Ukraine Follows the Lead of Finland, Moldova, and the Baltic States: and Eyes Latinisation of the Script

In a broader cultural and geopolitical shift, Ukraine is looking to follow the lead of other nations that have abandoned Cyrillic as a mark of distancing from Russian influence. Across the post‑Soviet and Eastern European space, countries such as Moldova, Kazakhstan, and the Baltic states have moved decisively toward Latin‑based scripts or emphasised non‑Russified linguistic ties Unian.info.  Ukraine is now seeing a similar trend. The Latin alphabet is gaining prominence in Ukraine as a symbol of resistance to Russian influence and alignment with the West Polskie Radio online. 

While official replacement of Cyrillic hasn’t occurred yet, discussions have picked up. In fact, proposals to introduce Latin alongside Cyrillic have been floated by Ukrainian leaders in the past and were publicly welcomed by the former foreign minister in 2018 Unin.info.

These discussions echo the 19th‑century 'Alphabet Wars' in Galicia, where intellectuals debated replacing Cyrillic with Latin: initially as a way to reflect vernacular Ukrainian more accurately and break with Russian ecclesiastical influence Wikipedia. Those debates ended with Cyrillic retained, largely for reasons of religious and national unity.

Today, a resurgence of that spirit is underway.  Advocates argue that adopting the Latin alphabet would signal Ukraine’s future lies with Europe, not in Russia’s shadow, culturally, psychically, and politically Emerging Europe. 

In fact, similar Latinisation moves are being made by European neighbours, and there’s growing momentum on social and digital platforms in Ukraine favouring Latin characters Polskie Radio online.  While no official policy pivot has been enacted, unlike firm changes in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, or Moldova, the conversation is alive.  It’s another way that Ukraine is shedding layers of Soviet-Russian legacy in favour of a Western identity.

^{The former Soviet World is moving to the Latin Alphabet to assert its independence:  It is expected Ukraine will follow}

A Holy War of Hypocrisy

What Putin has unleashed is not a war of faith, but a war of conquest dressed up as one. It is state terror painted with holy water, a gangster’s land-grab sanctified by pliant priests. Patriarch Kirill has not defended the Gospel but prostituted it to authoritarian power, making Christianity a fig leaf for imperialism.

The Ukrainians, meanwhile, have seen through the fraud.  By breaking with Moscow’s religious calendar and asserting their own independent church, they are reminding the world that faith belongs to people, not to despots.

And now, by considering Latinisation of their alphabet, they are further affirming that Ukrainian identity belongs to Europe, not to Russia’s restrictive orbit.

Putin’s so-called holy war is nothing but a lie: a reactionary crusade that ties together empire, patriarchy, and alt-right bigotry into one poisonous ideology. Strip away the incense, and what remains is exactly what international law says it is: an illegal invasion, wrapped in stolen vestments, led by a man who mistakes himself for God.

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