Bob Homans May 11

20220512

Ukraine – 5/11 Sitrep 
By: Robert Homans
@rhomansjr
May 11, 2022

Sergei Lavrov Channels Groucho Marx

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has a habit of frequently changing Russia’s war aims, with the apparent objective of internalizing and excusing Russia’s reversals in its war in Ukraine.   Someone sent me a quote from Groucho Marx that seems to encapsule Lavrov perfectly, albeit with some changes.  Among other things Groucho was famous for saying, “I have principles, and if you don’t like my principles, I have other principles.”   Lavrov’s version might read as follows, “Russia has concrete objectives for its Special Military Operation in Ukraine, and if you don’t like our objectives, we have other objectives.”

War of the Churches

An email I sent in July 2014 was the first time I brought up the subject of the split between the Russian Orthodox Church, Moscow Patriarchate, and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that, at the time, was not recognized as independent by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople (now Istanbul).   The Ukrainian Church received its independence in January 2019, the first time in over 300 years that Ukraine has an independent Orthodox church.   Since 2014, the “War of the Churches” has been a subject that I have returned to frequently.

This is an excellent column on this subject by David Ignatius of the Washington Post.   However, Ignatius might have widened his treatment to include the Greek Catholic Church, the predominate faith in Western Ukraine.   Historically, what Ignatius describes is not just a conflict between  the Russian Orthodox Church, Moscow Patriarchate, on one side, and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and, increasingly the Ecumenical Patriarch, on the other, but it includes both the Greek Catholic Church, and even the Roman Catholic Church.

For nearly 200 years the Russian Government, under both the Romanovs and the Communists, and with the cooperation of the Russian Orthodox Church, Moscow Patriarchate, suppressed the Greek Catholic Church.   The Catholic Church in Rome appears to have done little to support the Greek Catholic Church that, today, has over 4 million followers who recognize the Pope in the Vatican as their spiritual leader.

The Greek Catholic Church uses Orthodox rites but recognizes the Pope in the Vatican as their spiritual leader.   It traces its origin back to the Union of Brest in 1596, when Orthodox dioceses located in what was then the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth broke off from the Eastern Orthodox Church and recognized the Pope as their spiritual leader   

Since 1596, much of the original lands that contained Greek Catholic dioceses ended up as part of the Russian Empire and, later, the Soviet Union.   In 1839 the Synod of Polotsk dissolved the Greek Catholic dioceses lying within the Russian Empire, and all property belonging to the Greek Catholic Church was transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church, Moscow Patriarchate.   After WW-II the Communist governments in both Poland and the Soviet Union ordered the Greek Catholic Church to be dissolved,and its properties be transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church, Moscow Patriarchate.   Followers were often deported, or forced to leave, many for North America.  During this period there seemed to be little support to the Greek Catholic Church coming from the Vatican.

Pope Francis I recently suggested to Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church, Moscow Patriarchate, that he avoid being seen as “Putin’s Alter Boy,” and endeavor to move the Moscow Patriarchate away from being perceived as an organ of the Russian State.   Meanwhile, Pope Francis has not made any effort to reach out to the Greek Catholic Church.  At the same time that he criticized Putin, Francis said that he wanted to first visit Moscow, before visiting Kyiv.

It is possible that Francis sees visiting Kyiv prior to visiting Moscow, and meeting with both the leaders of the Greek Catholic Church and the independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church, would end any possibility of a reconciliation with the Russian Church, something that has been an objective of the Roman Catholic Church for over 1,000 years.   If Francis takes this position, it would be at the price of ignoring 4.1 million of his followers, members of the Greek Catholic Church.

Bucha

This is an interview with a survivor of the “Rape of Bucha.”  He was detained 3 times, escaping from his last confinement and thus avoiding almost certain death.   It is well-worth reading.  

According to the survivor, the Russian occupation of Bucha included units made up predominately of ethnic Russians, whom he said were interested in “drinking and stealing,” and Buryats, an ethnic minority group from the area near Mongolia, who were interested in “drinking and killing.”  It was the Russian Army unit, the 64th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade, made up largely of Buryats, that were awarded the distinctions from Pres. Putin for their work in Bucha.

From reading the interview, the only thing Russian and Buryat units had in common was the clear attitude on the part of Russian leadership, that they were expendable.    Here is what the survivor said, about the Russians, “Another interesting thing: They were thrown into a panic by home appliances. I remember them throwing themselves at the switchboards on fences because they thought they were transmitters. They didn't understand what a boiler was. People tried to explain to them that it was to keep the house heated, but they just stared and understood nothing.   In a few words: They’re a poor, uneducated horde. Just impoverished savages.  They really didn't believe that (Stepan) Bandera was dead. They didn't know that. In Bucha there were no Russians from Moscow or St. Petersburg. These were guys who had never seen a boiler in their lives. Kids from remote villages who had never studied anything anywhere. All they know how to do is drink. But actually, they can't drink either.”   Many of the Russian soldiers had never seen indoor plumbing.   Yet another example of an elite, the Russian elite, Putin and the “Siloviki” in this case, sending the less-fortunate to the slaughter.

Graham adds. Subscriber streamfortyseven provides the full interview here.

In these emails, we never use the term “Putin has invaded Ukraine,” or “Putin did this,” or “Putin did that.”   Putin didn’t rape little boys and girls in Bucha, nor did Putin engage in wanton murder and torture in Bucha.   Russians did those things.

Victory Day 2022

Sent by a friend - https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2022/may/victory-day