Vatican’s Stance on the Russo-Ukrainian War: Historical Background and Contem-porary Situation

Abstract

The purpose is to clarify the essence and historically conditioned continuity of Vatican policy regarding the Russo-Ukrainian war, based on a comprehensive analysis of sources and literature.

Methodological framework. The authors apply the concept of methodological synthesis, which entails the logical integration of the instrumental achievements of well-known scientific schools. In particular, the study employs civilizational, anthropological, and mental approaches, as well as general scientific and historical methods.

The scientific novelty lies in the initial holistic representation of the Vatican’s position on the Russo-Ukrainian war. Additionally, a historical exploration of the Roman Popes’ political responses to wars during the era of modernization has contributed to the reconstruction of their stance on conflict.

Conclusions. In the context of historical, historiographical, and political science methodologies, the article presents the evolution of the Vatican’s means of influencing wars in general, and the Russo-Ukrainian war (from 2014) in particular. It is clarified that the Vatican’s foreign policy concept in the context of war has undergone significant transformation throughout the modern era — from the mid-19th century to the present day. The levels of the Vatican’s involvement in the prevention or resolution of military conflicts included, at various stages, policies of condemning wars, expressing verbal sympathy (empathy) for the victims of war, and later, active direct participation in conflicts through humanitarian efforts, as well as diplomatic pressure and mediation in peace negotiations. At the same time, the Vatican avoided identifying the nature of the war and refrained from directly recognizing or condemning the aggressor state, thereby maintaining diplomatic space for exerting actual influence on the instigator of the war. A key part of the presented material is the characterization of the Vatican’s relationships with the Russian Orthodox Church, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. In particular, the interaction between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian state apparatus is analyzed in the context of their combined efforts to implement a hybrid method of aggression against Ukraine. Describing the policy of Pope Francis regarding the war, the article notes the significant arsenal of means he has employed to influence the war, while adhering to the Vatican’s modern historical tradition of recognizing national liberation wars as just. Among the historical lessons of Vatican policy on war, the unacceptability of any attempts to avoid identifying the aggressor and the refusal to clarify the geopolitical causes of the war are highlighted.