The Ukrainian-recognized city council of Mariupol, a port city occupied by Russia, reacted with shock to the exorcism in a Telegram post Tuesday. The reported church procession comes as Russian officials have increasingly adopted religious language that has presented the invasion of Ukraine as a battle against Satan.
The church’s ceremony included a march through the city’s streets that was intended to “sanctify” it, according to the post by the Mariupol City Council. The post included images of solemn people holding religious iconography against the backdrop of damaged buildings. In one image, people are standing next to a weathered rocket stuck in the ground with what appears to be the Azovstal steel plant in the background.
“Such darkness becomes a vivid manifestation of the true face of ‘Russian peace,’” the council said in the post.
As the Russian military advanced in southern Ukraine early in the war, Mariupol drew headlines as members of the Azov Regiment held out in the Azovstal steel plant under intensifying attacks before the city fell in May. The regiment is a controversial group of soldiers with far-right nationalist roots that was incorporated into the National Guard of Ukraine in 2014 after recapturing Mariupol from pro-Russian separatists.
Russian President Vladimir Putin in February launched the invasion with the stated aim to “denazify” Ukraine. The Kremlin has pointed to the involvement of the Azov Regiment and Ukrainian far-right groups to justify the war. But more recently, Moscow has increasingly framed the invasion as a fight against Satan.
In a speech claiming to have annexed four regions of Ukraine in September, Putin said that the West was promoting “satanism” by undermining religion and traditional values.
Ramzan Kadyrov, leader of Russia’s Chechen Republic, echoed Putin’s language in a Telegram post Tuesday, saying, “Satanism is openly acting against Russia.” Aleksey Pavlov, assistant secretary of the Russian Security Council, referenced Kadyrov when describing the shifting goals of the war in Ukraine to the state-run TASS news agency.
“I believe that with the continuation of the special military operation, it becomes more and more urgent to carry out the de-Satanization of Ukraine,” he told the news agency, adding that Ukrainians were increasingly abandoning the Orthodox faith.
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, responded with a tweet on Wednesday, calling Russia’s 13-member security council a “devil’s dozen.”
“And who needs ‘desatanization’ out there?” said Danilov. “But we have excellent exorcists with great practice and experience. The Armed Forces of Ukraine are rushing to help!”
Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Orthodox Church for comment.
