Church Without Walls: Post-Soviet Baptists after the Ukrainian Revolution, 2013-14, Joshua T. Searle, 2016

d could be faced with not just a regional conflict in a small corner of Ukraine, but with nuclear weapons being unleashed by Russia against the capital cities of Europe and even North America. There is already alarm among Poles and Lithuanians that Putin may engage in the kind of brinkmanship that will result in a '° This is the title of a book published in 2014 about Putin’s regime. See Peter Pomerantsev, Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia (New York: PublicAffairs, 2014). ?° Karen Dawisha, Putin’s Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia? (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2014). *! Catherine Wanner, “The People’s Republic of Donetsk is becoming a theocracy”. Online: http://qz.com/369015/the-peoples-republic-of-donetsk-is-becoming-a-theocracy. 2 Mykhailo Cherenkov, “A Holy War Against Common Sense: Russia vs. Ukraine and West”. Online: http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Blog/3918/a_holy_war_against_common_sense_russia_vs_ukraine_and_w est.aspx. Russian nuclear bomb falling on Warsaw or Vilnius.”* My Ukrainian friends are likewise afraid of the prospect of a nuclear war. The use of nuclear weapons against Russia’s “enemies” is being openly discussed on Russian state television and such weapons are a long-standing part of Russia’s military strategy. One authoritative report, commissioned by the Royal Institute of International Affairs in June 2015, warns that, “Just because something is unimaginable for Western »4 Asa result, the planners does not mean it is not considered a viable option by Russia. future not only of Ukraine, but of the whole of Eastern Europe, now hangs in the balance. If Putin’s Russia manages to get its way in Ukraine, then the whole of Eastern Europe could be plunged into a new dark age of Russian-led serfdom. For those in the West who advocate appeasement and who speak of Russia’s so-called “legitimate interests in Ukraine”, let it be clear that Putin’s Russia will not stop its aggressive policy of expansion in Ukraine. The whole of Europe (together with the Western values of freedom, accountability, democracy and civil society) could find itself confronted by an existential threat. From my personal experience as well as from sustained reading and reflection on this issue, I now believe that the only way to counter the threat posed by the imperialistic Russian World ideology is by demonstrating unity in solidarity. The diplomatic efforts by the West can only secure temporary, imperfect ceasefire arrangements. Mykhailo Cherenkov remarks that, the religious aspect of the Russian World ideology that lies behind the violence “makes the conflict in Ukraine unresolvable by political or economic means. If the war against Ukraine is a Holy War for Holy Russia, then no sanctions or diplomatic agreements will end ites There is no military solution to the current conflict. In a nuclear age, the principle of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) makes