Hennadiy Khrystokin, Doctor of Philosophical Sciences, Professor at the State University “Kyiv Aviation Institute.”
We are currently witnessing yet another surge in discussions about the future of the Ukrainian Church. Alongside the voices of real participants, video and text imitations created by artificial intelligence in favor of the Russian Orthodox Church are being added—rapidly spreading and distorting the authentic voices of the Church. What is happening? Why is this dirty information war for Ukraine’s right to have its own Church being waged so harshly and brazenly?
I believe that here we are dealing not simply with an opposing ecclesiastical position. We are dealing with a specific religious-political, sacralized, non-Christian belief system that we call the “Russian world,” which makes use of church rhetoric.
This is a collective construct that is artificially created not for the good of the Church and does not submit to the logic of common sense. It is a belief that has a religious foundation, state support, ideological justification, material interest, a political dimension, a worldview framework, a civilizational character—and now is additionally sanctified by the victims of war.
For adherents of this ideology, the issue is not the Christian act of Patriarch Bartholomew, who granted the Tomos to the wounded Ukrainian Church, nor the right of Ukraine to have its own Church. Rather, it is about a geopolitical logic opposed to them and unacceptable to them. And everything that contradicts this civilizational logic will be destroyed—human rights, humanistic values, and state sovereignty.
Strategic interests are involved here, and artificial intelligence is now working to realize them. What we see before us is not merely the ideology of the Russian world “fighting for Holy Rus’,” but a state-religious monster that will fight to the very end for its survival in the new multipolar world.
In one of his recent interviews, Dugin clearly states that the issue is not Ukraine (and we may add: not the Church), but the fact that for Russia, which seeks to become a third center of power in the new multipolar world, the state (and church) sovereignty of any post-Soviet country is impossible.
Because all these countries (and Churches), if they are not pro-Russian, are carriers of the influence of other hostile geopolitical centers. And they will fight all these countries (and Churches) as their sworn enemies. Ukraine is simply the first.
Sooner or later, the war in the post-Soviet space will become more global. For behind all this stands global geopolitics, and a struggle for a new redistribution of the world is now underway. We sometimes call this Russian fascism. But it is Russian imperial geopolitical chauvinism, which now—alongside Trump and China—is dividing the world and defending its own interests within its zone of influence.
We are already living in a new world—one in which old beliefs and ideologies will be transformed by artificial intelligence and become extremely aggressive. It is a world in which it is impossible to distinguish between the artificial, imitation, and reality. A world in which faith and artificial intelligence have become instruments of geopolitics.
We must learn to live in this new world—to see a broader perspective than what appears at first glance, to be able to discern and not succumb to these brazen manipulations. For it is impossible to defeat artificial intelligence with words. In the realm of words, AI will always defeat us.
We must bear witness, and above all—demonstrate active love. We must do our work, and may God help us.
The War for the Church: Artificial Intelligence, Sacralized Ideology, and the New Geopolitics
Hennadiy Khrystokin, Doctor of Philosophical Sciences, Professor at the State University “Kyiv Aviation Institute.”
We are currently witnessing yet another surge in discussions about the future of the Ukrainian Church. Alongside the voices of real participants, video and text imitations created by artificial intelligence in favor of the Russian Orthodox Church are being added—rapidly spreading and distorting the authentic voices of the Church. What is happening? Why is this dirty information war for Ukraine’s right to have its own Church being waged so harshly and brazenly?
I believe that here we are dealing not simply with an opposing ecclesiastical position. We are dealing with a specific religious-political, sacralized, non-Christian belief system that we call the “Russian world,” which makes use of church rhetoric.
This is a collective construct that is artificially created not for the good of the Church and does not submit to the logic of common sense. It is a belief that has a religious foundation, state support, ideological justification, material interest, a political dimension, a worldview framework, a civilizational character—and now is additionally sanctified by the victims of war.
For adherents of this ideology, the issue is not the Christian act of Patriarch Bartholomew, who granted the Tomos to the wounded Ukrainian Church, nor the right of Ukraine to have its own Church. Rather, it is about a geopolitical logic opposed to them and unacceptable to them. And everything that contradicts this civilizational logic will be destroyed—human rights, humanistic values, and state sovereignty.
Strategic interests are involved here, and artificial intelligence is now working to realize them. What we see before us is not merely the ideology of the Russian world “fighting for Holy Rus’,” but a state-religious monster that will fight to the very end for its survival in the new multipolar world.
In one of his recent interviews, Dugin clearly states that the issue is not Ukraine (and we may add: not the Church), but the fact that for Russia, which seeks to become a third center of power in the new multipolar world, the state (and church) sovereignty of any post-Soviet country is impossible.
Because all these countries (and Churches), if they are not pro-Russian, are carriers of the influence of other hostile geopolitical centers. And they will fight all these countries (and Churches) as their sworn enemies. Ukraine is simply the first.
Sooner or later, the war in the post-Soviet space will become more global. For behind all this stands global geopolitics, and a struggle for a new redistribution of the world is now underway. We sometimes call this Russian fascism. But it is Russian imperial geopolitical chauvinism, which now—alongside Trump and China—is dividing the world and defending its own interests within its zone of influence.
We are already living in a new world—one in which old beliefs and ideologies will be transformed by artificial intelligence and become extremely aggressive. It is a world in which it is impossible to distinguish between the artificial, imitation, and reality. A world in which faith and artificial intelligence have become instruments of geopolitics.
We must learn to live in this new world—to see a broader perspective than what appears at first glance, to be able to discern and not succumb to these brazen manipulations. For it is impossible to defeat artificial intelligence with words. In the realm of words, AI will always defeat us.
We must bear witness, and above all—demonstrate active love. We must do our work, and may God help us.