EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW — After 1,000 days, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused untold suffering for the Ukrainian people; Russian attacks have killed thousands of Ukrainians and displaced millions more. Throughout the war, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has served as a moral and spiritual anchor for many in the besieged country. The Church has provided humanitarian aid and advocated for both peace and resistance against Russia, promoting a message of spiritual resilience and patriotic pride.
The Cipher Brief spoke with Borys Gudziak, who holds the important (if unwieldy) title of Metropolitan-Archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia, to discuss the situation in Ukraine, the role the church has played, and the challenges posed by the Moscow branch of the church. He also spoke about his Church’s efforts to document war crimes, including the abduction of Ukrainian children from occupied territories to Russia — a crime that has led to warrants from the International Criminal Court for the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s children’s rights commissioner.
Gudziak also argued that Ukraine’s resistance against Russia is part of a wider war against authoritarianism. “Ukraine today is fighting for the freedom of the global world,” he said. “And it’s very important to understand that it is in the best interest of the United States to maximally support Ukraine’s defense.”
Gudziak spoke with Cipher Brief chief international correspondent Ia Meurmishvili for the latest episode of The World Deciphered.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Meurmishvili: Russia is continuing to attack Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, causing all kinds of issues for the Ukrainian cities and population. How do you assess the overall situation?
Gudziak: The overall situation is very difficult. People that have not experienced a bombing or an attack of drones or missiles can hardly imagine it. People in Ukraine have been living with it for three years during the full-time invasion, and in some cases for 10 years since Russia began the war. Last Sunday was the biggest missile-drone barrage at the capital city. Every day, different cities are being hit and people are killed. Civilians.
There’s over 4,000 schools damaged or destroyed, 2,000 hospitals, 15,000 miles of roads, countless bridges, 700 churches, hundreds of museums and other cultural objects and the housing of millions of people. And of course, more than 14 million people were forced from their homes. Some of them have come back, but not many. At least six million are abroad and there’s at least four million internally displaced persons. So that is difficult.
This is, from one point of view, unbearable, but people have been bearing it in Ukraine because the alternative of resistance is worse. It’s genocide or the obliteration, for example, of our church, which every time there is a Russian occupation in last 300 years, our church is rendered illegal. It has to go into the underground, the catacombs. So people are tired.
This winter is quite threatening because up to half of the energy grid infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed. And the winter is rough in Ukraine, but people resist because they have no choice.
Meurmishvili: What role is the church playing in helping the population to maintain hope and resilience?
Gudziak: I think almost all churches in Ukraine are a source of dignity. They inspire people to realize that they have a God-given dignity and they create communion, community. And when we feel the solidarity of others in the nation and internationally, there is a strong strengthening of the spirit.
The church has been emphasizing God-given human dignity and solidarity, [and] giving people at the lower level the authority and the responsibility to act and to defend themselves. And of course, all of this is supposed to work for the common good.
Our church and others are involved in humanitarian activity, sharing food, shelter and clothing with those who have been deprived of their homes and of their welfare. Also, the churches have chaplaincies. It must be noted that there are some equivocal qualities in the position of the Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. On the one hand, many of its members are on the front and it has taken an official stance against the war. On the other hand, it has maintained a tie with Moscow and often has been the platform for Russian-oriented rhetoric and policy orientation.
So there is a controversial quality to this church, which also has had a disproportionate number of collaborators with the Russian authorities.
Meurmishvili: How pervasive is that? And is there some sort of pushback from Ukrainian society or other churches to expose what, in some cases, Russia may be doing in Ukraine through its church?
Gudziak: The greatest pushback is that Ukrainian citizens who were members of this church have tended to move away. There is no clear sociology. We don’t have statistics, but there are ever fewer people who associate themselves with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.
There is a movement in this church – some members, although apparently not bishops, saying we have to make a definitive break with Moscow. So this church finds itself in a self-created difficult position and it is a dynamic one. There’s change, there’s movement of people and we will see where this will lead.
Meurmishvili: You mentioned how unbearable the situation is for most Ukrainians in the country. Also unbearable, and unimaginable, are the reports that Russia has taken tens of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia. Does the church play any role in bringing those children back? What impact has this had on Ukrainian society?
Gudziak: Percentage wise, very few of these children have returned. Different churches tried to work on this very painful topic in different ways. The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church through the Holy See, through the Pope and the Vatican, have on numerous occasions presented lists of people who have been abducted by the Russians or [are] Ukrainian prisoners of war. It has not been a highly successful process. Some POWs have been returned, but tens and tens of thousands of children have not.
Meurmishvili: Is there any sort of bridge or communication, through church-to-church relationships, to keep tabs on those children? Do we know where they live, or what conditions they are in?
Gudziak: Well, the Moscow Patriarch Kirill in Russia is utterly in cahoots with the government regarding this war. It is not a reliable partner in terms of the liberation of children, POWs, or in any other human rights question. In fact, it calls this war a holy war, justifying the war crimes and the crimes against humanity. Not a single bishop in Russia of the Russian Orthodox Church has spoken out against this war. And those clergy, priests, deacons who have done so or have simply refused to publicly pray for Russia’s victory in this war, not even speaking out against it, but just refusing to pray for Russian victories, have generally been marginalized, defrocked, and some have been imprisoned, tried and convicted of crimes against the Russian war effort. So, the channel through the dominant Moscow Patriarchate Church is unreliable.
Other churches unfortunately have been suppressed in their reaction. There are very few religious bodies and there are a few Russians in general who today in any public form take a stand against this war. So, it is not a very hopeful situation.
Meurmishvili: You mentioned war crimes a couple times during this interview. Do you play any role in investigating them or in helping the authorities, including international ones, investigate these crimes?
Gudziak: In Ukraine, there are numerous civic organizations that are carefully, systematically documenting the war crimes. There are tens of thousands of these [alleged war crimes]. The churches, of course, are ready to contribute and report to these agencies individual cases. Their greatest role is in speaking about the war situation and the war crimes on the platforms they have. I just returned from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops with almost 300 bishops present. I accompanied Bishop Stepan Sus, who’s an auxiliary bishop of Kyiv, working under his beatitude, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, and he made a report before the plenary gathering of the Catholic Bishops of America. He was greeted with a standing ovation and it is in encounters and publications and conferences, in prayer meetings that we can share information about what is going on in Ukraine, particularly about the war crimes, and bring this to the attention of a praying and advocating international public.
Meurmishvili: Is there anything that you would like to see more of from your perspective from the United States?
Gudziak: Ukrainians are very grateful to Americans for the support that Americans have given personally through communities, through churches, civic organizations, humanitarian funds, and through our government, [such as] defense, economic aid and humanitarian assistance. Ukraine now is fighting for not only its own freedom, sovereignty and existence and for the human rights of its own citizens; it is also standing up to an axis of evil. This includes Russia; China, which is supplying components for these missiles raining down on Ukraine; Iran, which is massively supplying drones; North Korea, which is now supplying soldiers; and their allies, which include Hezbollah, Hamas, Cuba, Venezuela, Mali, and other authoritarian totalitarian states. Ukraine today is fighting for the freedom of the global world. And it’s very important to understand that it is in the best interest of the United States to maximally support Ukraine’s defense.
Today there is some question about whether that support will continue. It’s important for all Americans to understand and lobby their political leaders regarding the essential nature of the assistance for Ukraine, because it is precisely in America’s interest.
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