Vyacheslav Khalanskyy
Western Versus Eastern Perceptions
Events in Ukraine are moving fast and changing rapidly every day. At the beginning of the Euromaidan protests, all attention focused on events in Kyiv (late November 2013—early March 2014). Now all attention has shifted to eastern and southern Ukraine. It is very difficult to characterize these events because they are so dissimilar. While events that occurred on the Maidan in Kyiv leading to the fall of President Viktor Yanukovich were mostly perceived positively by residents of Kyiv and the western regions of Ukraine, the opposite was the case in eastern Ukraine.
From 15 to 21 March 2014, the Association of Political Psychologists of Ukraine conducted a nationwide survey polling 1,998 adults over the age of 18, with 82 percent of respondents Ukrainian and 15.3 percent Russian. A majority (77.7 percent) of those surveyed supported Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov and 9.5 percent did not. Similarly, 76.9 percent supported Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and 9.7 percent did not.
Increasing Church Support for Ukrainian Unity
Believers in eastern regions of Ukraine are more likely to support Ukrainian unity than is the general population in eastern Ukraine. From 20 February 2014 representatives of various Christian confessions organized an interfaith prayer tent in Donetsk. However, the Russian Orthodox Church Moscow Patriarchate does not participate in this interconfessional movement and the Baptist Church only to a degree. Baptist pastors have attended such meetings, but their church members do not. The prayer tent was mostly the initiative of Pentecostals and Charismatics, with support as well from the Eastern-Rite Catholic Church, the Latin-Rite Catholic Church, and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Kyiv Patriarchate. The priorities of the participating Christian churches in Donetsk are praying for peace and safety and condemnation of the actions of Russia. Political neutrality in Donetsk is gradually being replaced by support for Ukrainian unity and opposition to Russia’s efforts to threaten that unity. A minority of believers in Donetsk churches (about 10 percent) favor unification of eastern Ukraine with Russia.
More and more Ukrainians, whether they live in western, central, or eastern Ukraine, are asking the question, “Who are we?” The events in Ukraine (the Maidan demonstrations and prayer events in the east as well as the west) show that the Church plays an important and even decisive role in society. Churches in Ukraine are increasingly identifying with the society in which they function. They are rethinking what it means to serve their people and to walk with them together during these most difficult times
Vyacheslav Khalanskyy is dean of the faculty of psychology, Ukrainian Christian Evangelical Theological Seminary, Kyiv, Ukraine.