Ukraine, the 8 year ‘invisible’ war in Donbass
The war in Ukraine did not break out on 24 February 2022, but on 20 February 2014. First the annexation of Crimea, then the uprising of pro-Russian separatists in the Donbass caused a conflict which has cost thousands of casualties and almost two million refugees. A review of these eight years is essential to understand the reason for the current fighting.
ACN warns: "Religious freedom at risk in Ukraine"
The greatest risk to religious freedom in Ukraine is faced above all by the communities in the republics of Lugansk and Donetsk, recently recognised by the Russian Federation. In Crimea, before the Russian occupation, there were 50 religious organisations operating on the peninsula, while by 2019 their number had already dropped to nine. The Daily Compass interviews Alessandro Monteduro, director of the Italian section of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN)
This war is the defeat of Western political realism
With the invasion of Ukraine, Putin's Russia has crossed a border that leads it towards a total break with the West, and forces it to be fatally sucked into a Eurasian axis with China from which it has everything to lose in the long run, since it can only play the role of vassal. It is the end of a long season in which the country, after the adjustment following the end of the USSR, has tried to find a balance between inclusion in the globalised economy and maintaining its status as an imperial power, albeit on a smaller scale than in the past.
Why Putin wants to conquer Ukraine. Religion is only a pretext
In a speech on February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin recognised the independence of the separatist republics of Lugansk and Donetsk. At the same time, he also called into question the very existence of Ukraine as an independent and sovereign state. So what is his goal? Given the recent recognition of the Patriarchate of Kiev by the ecumenical patriarch Bartholomew I, is Putin also defending a religious cause, on behalf of the Moscow Patriarchate? The Daily Compass asked Marta Carletti Dell'Asta, researcher at the Christian Russia Foundation in Italy and editor-in-chief of the magazine La Nuova Europa.
Those who hope for peace by preparing for war are deluded
In times of tension it is always said that "if you want peace, prepare for war". But it’s not the way; experience shows that those who prepare for war never achieve peace, at most a truce. We must change our attitude and prepare for peace instead. And for Christians, the model is the one explained by Metropolitan Antonij of Suroz.
Hungary and Poland lose against EU super-state
The EU Court of Justice has rejected the appeal presented by Hungary and Poland. The two Central European countries had asked for the cancellation of the regulation that allows the EU to suspend payments from the European budget to member states where "the rule of law is threatened". It is a further step towards a European super-state.
Reasons why Russia won’t invade Ukraine
Despite the Biden administration, 17 American intelligence agencies and the Pentagon consistently raising the alarm, since last December, about an impending Russian invasion of Ukraine, the prospect that Vladimir Putin will really order a takeover of the former Soviet republic is remote if not political fiction.
Canadian truckers sound horns of revolt against vaccine dictatorship
Although it is not the largest, so far it’s the most conspicuous and loudest of the protests against compulsory vaccination: it is the Freedom Convoy, the travelling protest of Canadian (and supportive US) truck drivers that peacefully invaded Canada and then "besieged" Ottawa, the capital, last weekend. The protest has already been imitated abroad, first of all in Holland and France.
Ms Metsola, from pro-life to abortionist. For power purposes alone
The election of Roberta Metsola from Malta as the new president of the European Parliament, by a healthy majority of the votes cast, is not good news. Yesterday, those who cheered her anti-abortionism were soon forced to change their minds after hearing what she had to say about "reproductive health" and "nationalism". And then there is her commitment to LGBTI rights.
Outspoken Nigerian bishop criticises President for ongoing violence
Archbishop Matthew Hassan Kukah criticises the ongoing violence in Nigeria and President Buhari’s silence on the matter. He condemns the plague of kidnappings with the disappearance of hundreds of boys and girls. Also Fr Luke Adeleke died in such an attack.
"Christians displaced and churches destroyed, Turkish jihad in Cyprus"
After the invasion in 1974, "Turkey’s ethnic cleansing in northern Cyprus resulted in the displacement of some 200,000 Greek Cypriots". Women and children were raped, detained and killed. More than 500 churches and monasteries were looted or destroyed and toponyms changed to Turkish, for a "cultural genocide" aimed at erasing the Greek-Christian identity of Cyprus. The Daily Compass interviewed Uzay Bulut a Turkish journalist.
Nordstream 2 (and Ukraine) divide US and Russia
The direct confrontation between Biden and Putin failed to lower tensions on the Ukrainian "front": Russia wants to keep NATO at a distance; the US is trying to create a division between Russia and Europe, starting with the boycott of the Russian-German gas pipeline Nordstream 2.
