Ukrainian sniper-theologian tells why Russians are ready to die for Putin’s regime

• This is the second part of Yuriy’s story. On the battle for Kyiv read: Ukrainian theology professor turned sniper tells how to hunt for Russian invaders

Ukrainian theology professor turned sniper tells how to hunt for Russian invaders

What is the Russian political regime built on?

At the beginning of the full-scale war, it was thought that – seeing great losses – Russians would go to the streets and start protesting. But we have underestimated one strange principle that exists in Russia. They know that what is pouring out from the TV is a lie. But they will still stubbornly hold on to this lie, because it is their worldview, even though it is contrary to the real worldview. A person will cling to this lie as much as possible and hate everyone and everything precisely because it contradicts this lie. This is a kind of civil religion — not even an ideology — and there is only a very small group of Russians who do not believe in it.

Why the West should be paying close attention to Putin’s article

We are dealing with this kind of Manichaeism, which opposes itself to the whole of culture and the whole of civilization. “You are too materialistic there, so we will kill you,” it says. Russia says that the West is consumerist, that it lost its ideological foundations. And maybe that’s true. But what do you do in Russia? You are engaged in super consumption and feed the people with ideas about a special mission, which is not there. You do not keep any of your promises. If you are so idealistic, then be like Mahatma Gandhi — without violence. The idea that Russia is supposedly some kind of special territory of good is a very destructive idea. [The Georgian philosopher] Giorgi Mamardashvili looked at this Russian nationalism with horror and warned that when they expressed the idea of ​​the “last battle,” they would say that any means were acceptable, and Russian people would accept the idea. Because Russian society is like jelly, without civil society and self-organization. Indeed [Russian ultra-nationalist] Alexander Dugin and other people are coming and saying that “we have the last battle.” And then the authorities are ready to lie about Georgia, lie about Ukraine, or any other country, commit immoral acts, and believe that they will not be punished.

How Alexander Dugin’s Neo-Eurasianists geared up for the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2005-2013

What we see from 2012 to 2021 is that Russian state propaganda and even the Russian Orthodox Church have instilled the ideology of fascism. Not only the features that Umberto Eco describes, but also, for example, the cult of machismo, which was in Italian fascism. And our macho (Putin) flew everywhere, even with geese, and walked with bears, showed off his naked torso on a horse, and so on. Our [Ukraine, western society's] problem is that we read little of Hitler's wartime speeches. If we studied those speeches, we would know that not only were “the Jews” to blame for everything, but with them, “world democracy” and “the rotten West.” All of this is what Putin and the Patriarch of Moscow Kirill are saying today. Almost verbatim. They are stubborn. They know that fascism is based on lies, but they continue to profess it. This is a phenomenon.

Putin’s Big Lie: the “Donbas genocide” and “impending Ukrainian attack”

I traveled in Russia. Such incredible natural resources – they could be living better than Saudi Arabia where immediately after birth you receive $100,000 on your account. However, in Russia, most of all I did not like the complete savagery that I saw. For example, people live around the monastery Optina Pustyn, which all Russian writers once visited, and now tourists come there. People live from the proceeds of these tourists and tell me how they hate this Optina Pustyn. I then thought “guys, what are you drinking? This Optina Pustyn feeds you, you have to pray for it. And you sit as if before the new 1917 [when the Bolsheviks ordered to “steal the stolen” from the bourgeoisie, which led to massive economic destruction and famine] and think “when will we finally set it on fire.” To make such an attitude and worldview possible, it is necessary to keep the population at a low level of education, it is necessary to have a very strong collectivism and infantilism.

Still, there can be hope for some normalcy in Russia

I personally believe that the Russians are not hopeless. But they must abandon these dreams that they will build something distinct, and that they condemn Western individualism and the rule of law because they want to live “by the laws of higher love.” And for the sake of these “laws of higher love,” they tortured millions of people in the 20th century.

The bottom line is – just forget about the laws of higher love, start from the rule of law and even if America may not appear in Russia, then at least Canada will for sure. And they will live normally without this eternal heroism, emotional pressure, and idiocy. But if they continue to preach savagery for a long time, they will soon simply become a territory of Muslim states. By 2050, every second person in Russia may be Muslim. And they will not be able to do anything about this, they cannot say "do not give birth to children, dear Muslims" or “Russian women: give birth to 10 children.” Once many thought that the Germans would never become “normal.” But they became even too normalized, they are not able to fight anyone. It was also once thought that Poles and Ukrainians would never reconcile. But they did, although even before the war many did not think that these two peoples would be this fraternal. With the Russians as well, now we see barbarism, but if they manage to press the stop button, there will still be a chance that this glacier of idiocy will melt. Although, of course, we will live with them, even if peacefully, still at a distance. There will be no friendship, admiration for the great Russian culture, and colonial attitude to imperialism anymore. We will always remember that there was a battle between freedom and fascism and they were on the side of fascism.

Why Russians go to war

“

They hate us because we don't want to be like them.”

The only goal of the war is to destroy Ukrainians as a nation. When Putin talks about aggressive NATO and the time it takes for a missile to fly from Kharkiv Oblast to Moscow, I remember what I saw in 1983, when Andropov said on TV how long it took for missiles to fly from Kharkiv or Finland. And from Finland, by the way, it is 2 minutes faster to Moscow. So why to wage war then? For some reason, they are not very worried about NATO's aggressive actions on the territory of Finland. It is already clear to everyone that the only reason for the war is that Ukrainians are a separate people, not a part of Russia. They hate us because we do not want to be like them. And why should we be like them? We have never agreed that freedom should be given to the authorities. And for Russians it is in the secular doctrine that Fuhrer Putin decides everything. As well as in the church doctrine where they believe that free will is dangerous. It is better to give freedom of will to the church authorities and they will decide what is canonical. We saw during the fight that Russians are not capable of creative personal action. Instead, they destroy everything. Some pets were running up the hill, while Russians were stuck in the factory where they landed. And they shot these animals. Well, why? You're surrounded in that factory, so better save the ammunition, turn on your brains … I think it's a war between civilization and barbarism, absurd barbarism. You know, when an alcoholic hates being an alcoholic, he hates other alcoholics, but most of all he hates those who do not want to drink with him and those who do not drink at all. And here it is the same.

Why are some Western leaders reluctant to provide Ukraine with all the necessary military aid for a rapid victory?

Some in the West have a very primitive position that because it is said not to kill, or that violence is bad, it immediately follows that it is not necessary to protect our children. It is clear that if someone insulted you at work, forgive and do not kill this person. There is no need to be angry and expand the circle of violence. It is obvious. But when we have a war between nations, when they are determined to destroy us, it no longer works. Defensive war is always justified. And the Pope knows that too. The position must be more radical and formed within the framework of Christian realism. Christian realism, once proposed by theologian professor Niebuhr, says that there are situations when there is undisguised evil in the historical arena. In his time, this was the situation with Hitler. If we compare this era with the First World War, it is clear that WWI was absurd because it could have been avoided, but WWII was inevitable. And Niebuhr says we must defend ourselves in such cases. Yes, we recognize that we are not superhumans, we often cannot fulfill even the 10 commandments. But we understand that we must fight and overcome this threat of total destruction. President Biden writes in his book, and I like the idea, that we should not just restrain Russia, but actively oppose it. Russia cannot be forgiven when it crosses the red lines every time. He writes that Hitler came to power in 1933 and in 1935 he violated the demilitarization of the Rhineland, and introduced troops there. And if the West had then intervened in this situation, and under the Treaty of Versailles could have intervened, they would have lost 1,000 soldiers in 1935 but would have removed Hitler from power. Yes, they would be condemned for losing these people, but they would suppress the evil at its root. If they had intervened in 1937, they would have lost 5,000. If in early 1939, they would have lost even more and could still be condemned because no one would have known about the concentration camps – the mass murder of Jews – no one would have known this yet. But it was necessary to intervene. There were articles saying that the war has dragged on and, whatever it means, Ukrainians “should be realistic.” So if the West does not want the war to drag on and avoid great economic losses, then Ukrainians need to liberate the entire territory of Ukraine as soon as possible. The solution to all economic problems lies in the rapid restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity so, please, more sanctions and more weapons; supply F-16s; artillery. Don't worry, the fate of Europe is decided here in the steppes of the south-east of Ukraine, as it has always been that we are the shield of Europe. We will stop these newest barbarians and put an end to this here.

Ukraine, the Gates of Europe of the last millennia, and their meaning for Russia – Serhii Plokhii explains

Pacifists “lack imagination”

The first $5,000 for this Barrett sniper rifle [Yuriy shows one of his own rifles standing next to the wall] was given by Protestants who were pacifists before the war. They used to say that we had to reconcile with the DNR and LNR [Unrecognized proxy “republics” that Russia created in the occupied part of Donbas in 2014], to find a compromise. They said that we should love our enemies. They even said that if there is rape, you still have to be patient, because our ancestors were once savages but then, through the generations, they became civilized. They preached all this about patience, and then I asked what they would do if there is violence against their children. And they immediately said that this was their ideal position. Then the Pope said that we must put up with it at any cost. It is clear that he has no children and that he cannot imagine what he would do if his daughter was raped in Bucha. People do not have the imagination to put their child in the place of this victim of war. And this is where humanity begins. Treat others not even the way you want to be treated, but the way you want your children to be treated.

And then suddenly, when the war began, those pacifists called and said: "Yuriy, we are donating the first $5,000 for a Barrett. Aim well.” I told them that they were Pacifists. They say “yes, and we are still Pacifists now, and you are also a Pacifist, we know, and we’re giving you money for a sniper rifle.” “Great idea,” I said. They were the first to donate rifles. There was also another Protestant Church that helped me a lot, as well as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. And half of the money for this thermal imaging device was raised by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the United States. And they called and said, “Sorry that we can help you so little.”

Russian Orthodox Church promoting Russian chauvinism

Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church has taken not just a servile position regarding the state, but one in which it completely repeats everything the state says. Former Patriarch Alexei, who died in 2008, distinguished between Ukrainians, Belarusians, and Russians, but Patriarch Kirill began saying in 2015 that Ukrainians, Belarusians, and Moldovans were not just part of the Russian world, but subethnic groups in the Russian nation. And the very existence of Ukraine for Kirill is an act of genocide, because it is allegedly the division of the great Russian people. Very strange ideas. As for the activity of the Moscow Patriarchate Church in Ukraine, at first the position of the central apparatus in Ukraine was that we live in Ukraine. The Russians tried to influence this, but 95% of their instructions were ignored. And when there were instructions to hold the “Brothers” festival, it was among those 5% that obeyed. However, when Metropolitan Onufriy was elected to lead the Moscow Patriarchate Church in Ukraine, he agreed to the pro-Russian development. From that moment on, they began a systematic information war against Ukraine. And then they started to oppose Ukraine in the OSCE, saying that Ukraine oppresses them. It was very funny. They come to the OSCE and say that we have a mass violation of the rights of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine. Excuse me, what is the violation? That the community gathered and voted for the transition to the Kyiv Church. In the village of Ptyche, for example, all but eight people voted for the transition from the Moscow Patriarchate to the Kyiv Patriarchate. And this was called persecution. And every such case they shouted that they were being persecuted. This has been a systematic information war against Ukraine. And then, when the Ukrainian Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate suddenly received tomos [official recognition of autonomy] from Bartholomew Patriarch of Constantinople, they turned against the whole world of Orthodoxy, saying only Moscow orthodoxy is right. They waged all this information war until 24 February 2022, and then suddenly [one of the leading priests] Danylevich convinced Onufriy that it must be said that “we are against the war.”

Russian and Ukrainian military tactics correspond to their national cultures

In general Russians were fighting WWII-style. While advancing towards Kyiv, they had all those very long military convoys up to 64 kilometers long. They deployed huge crowds for the offensive in the hope it would help them to break through our defenses. However, they also applied some tricky solutions. Usually, convoys have military protection by separate units on both sides. But this time the Russians used continuous military protection as if three columns were advancing in parallel. One was the main and two were protecting on either side. Although they were moving very slowly, it was hard to strike them from the side. Russians were often shooting back very densely when Ukrainians attempted to strike from a side. Yet, every action has an opposite reaction. We later started using small groups of people that couldn’t be stopped by any density of guarding troops. Two grenade launchers, two snipers, one machine gunner, and one gunner went to the Russian rear directly through this guarding column. These small groups creep towards the guarding column, creep through the guarding column, and then say “Good evening, we are from Ukraine.” And here the phenomenon such as that with my friends in Yasnohorodka began, with 34 shots and 34 corpses — goodbye.

“You can win the war by this psychosis that starts among the enemies when a lot of snipers work.”

Yet, I also know one group that had losses, because one of the snipers used a rangefinder. And I always say not to use a rangefinder, it is better to determine the distance by eye. Such a trifle, his rangefinder ray, which is invisible to the human eye but visible to the tank, was noticed by the tank. And a Russian tank shot directly at him and he died, he was a very good guy. But he did not have enough of (let’s say) passion for hunting. Why measure with a rangefinder? You do not take a rangefinder to measure the distance to the boar on the hunt, do you? You have to think about how not to show yourself. Many snipers were also killed because they went to the position without a balaclava or at least did not cover their face. It's just for Facebook photos, that the rifle is not masked and the hands are without gloves. At the front, the best snipers belong to several categories. The first is those who took courses, trained for a long time, and are highly professional. The second category is those who served in the army or somewhere in private security and at the same time got a sniper qualification as an additional specialty. And the third is professional hunters who shoot without calculations and shoot as they do on the hunt. Many women are snipers and work with a variety of weapons, even those considered semi-sniper, and they have very high results. The best snipers come from women who can shoot accurately. Very often there are sniper groups, and I even know a couple where a man and a woman are a sniper team. Snipers find it hard to work in the Kherson Oblast, because they can't act in small groups in the enemy's rear in the steppe terrain. If in the woods you just have to crawl, sometimes five kilometers at a time, in the south this is simply impossible. That is why in Kherson Oblast snipers mostly work as the Americans do – there is a front line and they find good points along the front line, on Ukrainian territory. Then from a high point or from a building they make only one shot, and quickly escape to look for another point. We have large losses of equipment in the south because the Russians understand that after a sniper shoots, somewhere behind the hill a car should be standing, and the insane shelling begins. Or the Russian Orlan drone flies with his Canon cameras. It does not notice the snipers but notices the car. Snipers have a great impact, not only because they inflict losses to the enemy but also for psychological reasons. The enemy knows: “Snipers are working, so we need to hide and can't come forward. Tanks, come on, we have snipers working. Faster!” Psychosis begins and in this psychosis, you can win the war if you put out 1,000 good snipers who will shoot steadily.

Related:

• Russian World: the heresy driving Putin’s war
• Ukrainian theology professor turned sniper tells how to hunt for Russian invaders
• Putin’s Big Lie: the “Donbas genocide” and “impending Ukrainian attack”
• Escape from Mariupol. “I begged God to let me die quickly!” 
• How Alexander Dugin’s Neo-Eurasianists geared up for the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2005-2013
• “My name was on Russia’s kill lists,” Mariupol journalist who joined territorial defense says
• Ukraine, the Gates of Europe of the last millennia, and their meaning for Russia – Serhii Plokhii explains