Ukraine is like a terrible dream of the Russian world: a country where people are not slaves

Exclusive. Imagine a scene where diplomacy and political gibberish are bubbling on the surface, and under it, the ideological contagion - "Russian peace" - is quietly but inexorably growing. That's all we saw before — warm-up only: "theological" perversions, messianic fantasies superethnos, pseudo-ecumenism with ritual tricks and a claim to universal domination. Now, when we go through this path, life is revealed before us field of conflict with Ukraine. It is here that the absurdity and cruelty of the "Russian world" become tangible, concrete, and it is no longer possible to hide that this is an attack not just on the state, but on the right of people to be free in religion, culture and identity.

Ukraine demonstrates that it is possible to remain Orthodox, but not to become a slave to anti-human ideology, not to turn national loyalty into worship of the state, and it is precisely for this that the "Russian world" hates it.

It is not about politics or geography, but about the very essence of the idea: Ukraine for this ideology is a living refutation of its fundamental myth. Here is demonstrated what the "Russian world" is so afraid of: opportunity the existence of the Orthodox tradition, which develops freely, remaining in harmony with its people, respecting human dignity and not turning into an appendage of the bureaucratic apparatus. And if you take a closer look, it is precisely this contrast that turns Ukraine into an uncomfortable mirror in which all flaws, contradictions and heresy of the "Russian world".

That is why the OCU and the UGCC became objects of hatred. Both churches — each in its own way — demonstrate the possibility of a religious life without the cult of the state and without the obligatory scruples of "Eastern anti-Westernism."

OCU, young and confident, absorbs both Byzantine heritage and Ukrainian spiritual culture, building a theology of freedom and responsibility, not submission and fear.

The UGCC, which preserved the fidelity of the Eastern tradition through centuries of catastrophes, testifies that Christianity can be focused on the individual, and not on the imperial model of being.

This fact is unbearable for the "Russian world". The very possibility of Orthodoxy existing without imperial guardianship disrupts the ideological pyramid, where grace is equated to an administrative resource, and loyalty to Christ — to loyalty to the state. Free church life, diverse and open, exposes the substitution on which the entire building of the ROC MP named after Stalin is based, a model of the post-Soviet era: under the guise of spirituality, a political cult is presented, and under the guise of a creed — manuals from officials' offices.

Hence the contrast, which becomes a sort of litmus test of our time. On the one hand, there is a bright image where the Mother of God shelters children, an image that speaks of trust, love, and protection. On the other hand, there is aggressive iconography, created according to the designs of one infamous "Austrian artist", only with an iconic face instead of a swastika. Such "theology" turns the sacred into a decoration for the cult of hatred. At this level, it is no longer possible to talk about religion: before us is the profaned sacred, a tool for justifying destruction.

In the logic of the "Russian world", everything around is divided into "own" and "fallen". The "fallen" world, according to their conviction, must either disappear or be "reconnected" to the source of the supposedly only grace - to the Russian Orthodox Church. And the darker the "sermon" about the impending apocalypse, the easier it is to keep the flock in a state of mobilized fear.

Anyone who resists is automatically declared a "servant of the Antichrist," which means that he is outside human and moral standards. It is extremely convenient when the goal becomes not a mission, but an expansion.

On this basis, the doctrine of the "Russian peace" is formed as a justification of the most ordinary imperialism. Everything is framed with words about "land collection", "irredentism" and "historical mission", but the essence remains unchanged: the desire to subjugate, expand the space of power, eliminate everyone who is capable of resistance. When ideology demands destruction and replaces morality with total loyalty, any crime becomes "permissible" - from carpet bombing to mass executions and torture, which would have been the envy of the executioners of the Third Reich. These are not deviations, but the internal logic of the system.

Therefore, the "Russian world" is so organically merged with radicals who openly talk about genocide. Characters like Milchakov, Okhlobystin or other apologists for violence feel at home in this ideology. She gives them a language, an excuse, and a mission. But this is not faith or tradition. This is an ideological bunker in which radicalism ceases to be an extreme and becomes the norm.

And the truth here is simple: until this construction is exposed, recognized and rejected as false, there will be no peace. Not because it is strong, but because it claims a sacred status, replacing with itself what should lead a person to the world, and not to destruction.

And it is precisely here that one more principled conclusion becomes clear, from which the supporters of the "Russian world" try so hard to escape: the Russian Orthodox Church is not an observer, but a direct accomplice of systemic violence. It is no longer about metaphors or "spiritual support of the state", but about facts that have a clear legal qualification. Here is one of the most painful methods. Depriving children of their national identity through forced "re-education" is not "educational practice" or "cultural adaptation." This is a legally defined act of genocide. And attempts to hide this fact behind the veil of "piety" only make the crime more obvious.

New research from the Yale School of Public Health reveals the extent to which it really gets cold. Russia has organized a network of more than 210 facilities where Ukrainian children deported from the occupied territories are taken. These are not only camps and military bases - among these places there are churches, monasteries and structures related to the Russian Orthodox Church, which are used to legitimize illegal detention and ideological processing.

The programs through which children are taken are not spiritual nourishment or help for the injured. This is a consistent introduction of militarism: assembly of drones, fire training, tactical training, military training, medical training, grenade throwing competitions. At separate bases, they conduct "air training" — that is, simulation of combat operations. Children are not taught life, but war.

According to the Ukrainian side, at least 19,500 children were deported, and this figure may be almost twice as high. It is not by chance that in 2023 the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for the dictator Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova for war crimes related to the deportation of minors. This is not a political act recognition of the systematic nature of the crime.

Researchers directly call this entire network "unprecedented in scale." And the participation of religious objects in this scheme is not a detail, but a meaningful element. Church walls are used as an instrument of legitimization, as a form of disguise, as a shell designed to hide the very fact of forced retraining and identity change. This is the place where the spiritual space is transformed in front of the crime.

Ukraine rightly insists that the issue of the return of deported children should be central to any future negotiations. Because in any war you can argue about territories, diplomacy, statuses. But when we are talking about kidnapped children — this is no longer politics. This is the moral border between civilization and its complete opposite.

And if you look back at the past, it becomes absolutely clear: for Ukraine, there were no conditions that would allow avoiding a collision with the "Russian world". Absolutely none. Even if the entire east of the country were Ukrainian-speaking to the last inhabitant, or vice versa, all of Ukraine spoke only Russian - this would not change the essence of Russian imperial logic.

History knows many vivid examples of similar situations.

In 1934, the USSR invaded Xinjiang, where, under the guise of "liberators", Soviet troops tried to impose their rule on the local Uyghurs who resisted the Chinese government of Chiang Kai-shek. Despite the numerous advantage of the Red Army — 10,000 men against two thousand Chinese-Uighur militia — the Soviet army suffered a defeat.

But when the genocide of Russian and Russian-speaking Albanians took place in Manchuria under the oppression of Chinese communists in 1946, the USSR was completely indifferent. Children and adults were taken to Gulag camps, and mass murders, including atrocities against babies, remained unnoticed by Moscow. The cultural genocide, the ban on the use of the native language, the destruction of any memory of the Russians of Harbin and Shanghai — all this went unnoticed by the Soviet authorities.

And today this shell from among the "fighters for Russian peace" - the Dugins, the Prosvyrins, the Prokhanovs - prefers to remain silent about the real genocides of Russians in Manchuria. Putin, on the other hand, stuck his lips to the shiny buttocks of Comrade Xi, and no "historical memory" can peel off his imperial fixation.

This is a small historical lesson for us: there are no conditions that Ukraine could fulfill in order to avoid the struggle for sovereignty. After all, Russian imperialism is indifferent to everything except its own power and control over its neighbors. And even the Russian people themselves, according to their logic, should not have sovereignty, but only be a pawn in the hands of another bald or mustached maniac of the Kremlin. It is in this festering imperial mania of greatness that the essence of the "Russian world" is contained. I precisely for the sake of this rot everything is ready - violence, lies, destruction.

In order to fully understand the nature of the "Russian world", it is important to remember that Russia, without cleansing itself of its internal abomination - "goyda", so to speak - will forever remain an evil empire, a concentration camp state that cannot live without war and is therefore permanently "pregnant" with a new one. No illusions.

It is enough to turn to artistic analogies to feel it. The film "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" (2008) shows an ordinary world: good children Bruno and Gretel, a good mother, an intelligent grandmother who throws subtle anti-Hitler sarcastic lines in the narrow family circle. Everything seems cozy, correct, familiar.

But if you look at your father, the true essence of totalitarian thinking is revealed. He "does very necessary work for the family" - he organizes the murder of people. Honest, punctual, polite, outwardly decent — and at the same time an accomplice to a monstrous crime. All the neatness of the ego, all the external correctness of the ego only mask the factory of death.

That is the logic of the state, where the person means nothing, but the state is everything. In this sense, the "Russian world" is the direct successor of those who built camps, destroyed life and then wondered "how it turned out." Soft words here are complicity. Rigor and honesty is the only way talks about him seriously.

Let us emphasize that the "Russian world" is not just an ideology or a cultural concept, but a whole system of religious and political myths, turned into an instrument of control, lies and violence. His hatred of Ukraine and Ukrainian national churches is not accidental. The OCU and the UGCC demonstrate a living alternative: it is possible to be Orthodox in spirit and tradition, without obeying political dictates, without worshiping the "state deity" and without exchanging love for God with loyalty to power. This freedom of religious and national identity destroys the entire foundation of the "Russian world", where faith has been replaced by state instruction, and morality and dogmatics have turned into instruments of repression.

The practice of forcibly removing and "re-educating" Ukrainian children from the occupied territories is the clearest evidence that "Russian peace" is not limited to loud statements. It is an instrument of genocide whose mission is to destroy identity, impose collective slavery, and deprive future generations of the right to be themselves. The Russian Orthodox Church and its satellites here are accomplices in the crime of legitimizing violence under the guise of "grace" and the sacred purpose of the state.

History shows that Ukraine could not avoid the conflict with this ideology. After all, Russian imperialism has never recognized the sovereignty of its neighbors, and any experience of "Russian-speaking coexistence" in other regions of the world only confirms that attempts to subjugate a foreign nation inevitably lead to violence and genocide. And the "Russian world" does not recognize human freedom, the right to identity, self-determination, or a culture that does not coincide with his imperial logic.

Thus, the conclusion is obvious: "Russian world" is not just a political utopia or a cultural fantasy, but a systemic religious-political and ideological construction that directly opposes the Ukrainian nation, its sovereignty and spiritual identity.

The struggle with this ideology is not a question of diplomacy, but a question of existence, a question of life and death, a question of protecting the future of Ukraine.Any compromises with the "Russian world" they mean legitimization of genocide and moral complicity in crimes.

As a result, the "Russian world" should be considered as an anti-Christian, anti-human system, where the state replaces God, and violence and ideological terror are the main doctrine. Opposing him is the central task of Ukrainian society and the whole world, which values ​​freedom, sovereignty and humanity.

Martin Skavronsky, for Newsky.