The Russian-Ukrainian war has taken the issue of national security far beyond the purely military sphere, starkly illustrating the critical importance of safeguarding our country’s spiritual and humanitarian sphere. In the context of the Russian Federation’s multidimensional hybrid aggression, religious institutions are at risk of becoming targets of manipulation and instruments of information warfare. Under such circumstances, the synergistic interdisciplinary collaboration between security experts and religious analysts has become an urgent imperative. The search for common solutions at the intersection of these two fields formed the basis for the proceedings of the round table “Religion and National Security of Ukraine in Wartime”, presented at the end of July this year.
The collection of articles brings together studies from well-known Ukrainian academics and practitioners who have analysed in detail the pressing issue of staffing the Military Chaplaincy Service within the Armed Forces of Ukraine, highlighted the Russian Federation’s attempts to integrate religious structures into its hybrid warfare strategy, and delved into the specifics of the complex canonical and territorial conflicts between the Local Churches in recent years. However, alongside thorough religious studies research, the publication also includes a controversial attempt to present the religious landscape of modern Ukraine in a biased and tendentious manner.
In his extensive review of the published article collection, Rev. Dr. Andrii Shymanovych offers concerned readers a religious-studies and philological-theological assessment of the papers. The review highlights the collection’s strengths, methodological shortcomings, linguistic inaccuracies, and cases of the authors’ ideological bias, whilst also emphasising the need for professional discussion with respect for human dignity and the unacceptability of hate speech.
Fr. Andrii’s review is available for reading via this link: https://www.academic-initiative.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/religion_security_review.pdf (in Ukrainian)
