Murmansk church leader who calls for 'de-nazification' of Ukraine pays visit to occupied land
During his visit to Mariupol, Metropolitan Mitrofan asserted that both Donbass and Murmansk are frontline regions in the so-called 'Russian world.'
The hardline and arch-conservative church leader from Murmansk on September 21 took part in a church service in Talakivka, a suburb of Mariupol.
The service was headed by Metropolitan Vladimir of Mariupol and Donetsk, a prelate appointed by the patriarch in Moscow.
The church is located on occupied land in the middle of what was a macabre battle zone in the first three months of Russia's full-scale war of aggression.
Several estimates say that more than 25,000 Ukrainian civilians were killed by the advancing Russian troops.
During the church service, Mitrofan expressed praise for the occupants and emphasised that the people of Donbass 'play a special role in the spiritual revival of the 'Russian world.'
He indicated that Donbass and Murmansk have something in common.
"You too are on the front line [of the 'Russian world']," he said.
"It is here, in these devastated, tormented cities, that the future of our country is being shaped. Thanks to you, thanks to your patience and humble endurance of these sorrows, something amazing is happening – a new, healed country is being born," Mitrofan proclaimed.
According to the local church, the guest from Murmansk had come to Donbass to provide 'pastoral care' to warriors from the Murmansk region that fight in the area.
Several thousand men from the Kola Peninsula are fighting on occupied Ukrainian lands. The 61st Naval Infantry Brigade and the 80th Motorised Rifle Brigade are deployed in the Dnepr river delta. Both brigades have lost a vast number of troops.
Mitrofan was himself a military man before he decided to enter a theological institute in 1999. For two decades he served as captain of several major naval vessels and even graduated from the Kuznetsov Naval Academy in St. Petersburg.
A deep sense of militarism has accompanied the prelate's church service on the Kola Peninsula. He is a staunch supporter of the war in Ukraine and has on many occasions called for the 'de-nazification' of Ukraine.
In a sermon delivered only a month after the start of the full-scale invasion, Mitrofan emphasised that Russia has a to do a big job to 'de-nazify' Ukraine.
“We now see how hard it will be to heal the country, how hard it will be de-nazify the country, remove the infection, the fascism that now holds everyone in fear as hostages […]," he said to churchgoers in Murmansk.
For Mitrofan, the war against Ukraine is fully legitimate and even a necessity. He describes Ukrainians as “a people that has lost its heart to the Prince of Darkness.”
The prelate, whose actual name is Aleksei Badanin, has also repeatedly lashed out against the neighbouring Nordic countries of Norway and Finland. In a service in the Church of Boris and Gleb, which is located only few hundred metres from the border with Norway, he said that Russia is 'bordering evil.'
"It is important that we are here, on this very forward position of the border of our country," he said and added that the border is also "a spiritual border that stands against the Evil that is rolling over us."
