Metropolitan Luka: Ukraine is Being Drawn into a Spiritual Abyss Under the Guise of European Integration

Metropolitan Luka of Zaporizhzhia and Melitopol (Kovalenko) has sharply criticized the demands of Western politicians for Ukraine to legalize same-sex unions as a precondition for European integration. In a public statement, the hierarch said that this is not about human rights but rather systematic spiritual violence against the Ukrainian people and an attempt to turn them away from Christ. The archbishop shared his message on his Telegram channel.

“Today we are once again faced with an ancient choice: God or the ‘golden calf’, truth or profit, eternity or the ‘European dream’—a dream that has been promised for over a decade but has quickly turned into a dictatorship of sin,” Metropolitan Luka stated.

He emphasized that the Church is being forced to betray the Gospel, and the people — to call sin ‘normal’. “This is an attempt at spiritual violence against the people, against their conscience, culture, and millennia-old Christian tradition. Once the people are forced to call evil good, their consciousness can then be shaped without resistance,” the archbishop warned.

According to him, amid the war, there is not only a military conflict taking place but also a battle for the soul of the Ukrainian people. “What is the point of winning a war for land if we lose the war for the soul? The Canaanite kingdoms were also considered ‘progressive’, but they sacrificed children to Moloch. They are no more. God does not tolerate mockery of Himself,” said Metropolitan Luka.

He pointed out that it is the youth who are most at risk, being raised increasingly detached from Christian foundations. “What is especially frightening is that children and youth — the reproductive future of the nation, the ‘little flock’ that Christ especially commanded to protect — are coming under attack,” he said.

“Ukraine is a land sanctified by the blood of martyrs and the prayers of saints… The introduction of same-sex unions is not a ‘European value’, but a spiritual betrayal, a new ‘baptism’ — into darkness, not into Light,” Metropolitan Luka concluded.

Earlier, on July 20, 2025, after the Divine Liturgy, Metropolitan Luka addressed the faithful with a homily. He spoke about the proper way to respond to events surrounding the Church and emphasized what constitutes the foundation for standing firm in the faith. He added that the authenticity of the Church is reflected in how its members respond to the trials it faces. In the case of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, he said, it is essential to properly understand and endure the unjust persecutions directed against it.