Remembrance Day

In wartime, the destruction of sacred spaces matters—and other news

Many of us with the 2014 invasion of Iraq by the Islamic State, and the worsening Syrian War, saw a reckoning. The postwar global order was broken, great powers would fight proxy wars but not protect unarmed civilians, could have the latest weapons but not repulse terror groups and rogue regimes that took advantage of the chaos to commit war crimes. Women and girls tortured and raped. Men and their sons shot dead and buried in mass graves. A rule of fear and resignation took hold.

The ISIS invasion destroyed Yazidi and Christian communities. It also destroyed history: Ancient churches, temples, and synagogues became rubble.

It took years to muster a coalition that drove ISIS from Iraq, while the process of creating security and rebuilding communities is taking even longer. It fell to civilian groups, the victims themselves, and journalists (like me with my small part) to document what had been, and what should be again. Otherwise, how will we and coming generations know about what no longer exists?

The Ukraine war is different, and also similar. Ukraine’s leadership and its army of conscripts and volunteers have stood undaunted in the face of nearly 9 months of war, determined despite the slaughter. Yet the scenes of destruction fill me with familiar sorrow: empty cities, historic churches wiped out, some even now occupied by Russian troops.

Destruction of sacred spaces isn’t only part of the battle scene. Over and over we have learned that when religious sites disappear, so do the diversity and religious freedom they embody.

That’s why the work of Ukraine’s Institute for Religious Freedom is worth watching. Its first report on Russian destruction of religious sites found that more than 270 houses of worship and religious institutions have been damaged or destroyed since the February invasion. Russian soldiers continue to seize church property in occupied areas, turning churches and seminaries into military bases. They have detained and abused clergy, in some cases torturing them. They have searched and destroyed mosques in Kherson, and bombed a synagogue in Kharkiv where Jews were hiding. More from yesterday’s report here.

A priest stands inside his shelled church near Kyiv (Getty Images/BBC)

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Welcome to this Globe Trot roundup on Nov. 11, Veterans Day in the United States and Remembrance Day in Canada, UK and Commonwealth countries.

Russia has withdrawn from the strategic southern port city of Kherson, and liberated residents are celebrating tonight by firelight.

Yaroslav Trofimov @yarotrof

Liberated Kherson singing Chervona Kalyna, a song that was banned for nine months. No electricity — Russia destroyed the power lines before leaving.

• National security adviser Jake Sullivan in recent months has had confidential conversations with top aides to President Vladimir Putin in an effort to reduce the risk of a broader conflict over Ukraine and warn Moscow against using nuclear weapons. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin also spoke this past month with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. The aim has been to guard against the risk of escalation and keep lines of communications open, officials say, not to discuss a settlement of the war in Ukraine.

• The Orthodox Church of Ukraine will allow worshippers to celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25—separating itself from centuries of tradition, plus Moscow’s Orthodox Church and others, who celebrate the holiday on Jan. 7.

DRC: Rising tensions between Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda are threatening war in the Kivu region. DRC officials accuse Rwanda of supporting M23 rebels who have seized towns in North Kivu province. Former Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta and other members of the African Union are seeking to mediate the crisis as DRC President Félix Tshisekedi called for a “general mobilization.”

Ethiopia’s war in Tigray is over, after federal forces and rebels ended a conflict that’s killed hundreds of thousands and left in need of help more than 5 million Tigrayans. But peace depends on reconciliation, and the settlement did not include provision for an international peacekeeping force.

Turkey: Two siblings died within days of one another in Ordu, the last Armenians living in the northern province. Doctor Dikran Toraman and his 86-year-old pharmacist sister Ardem Toraman were born in Ordu to Armenian Holocaust survivors and often went on donkeys to serve the Muslim population in nearby villages. Ordu had a population of over 12,000 Armenians before the 1915 holocaust that killed an estimated 2 million Christians. Their neighbors held a ceremony in the local mosque and “buried them in tears” as they “helped the poor families for years without expecting anything in return.”

International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church was last Sunday, but this guide remains a good way to pray for people living in critical areas of threats.

Don’t miss… Winter swimming arrives with Independence Day, and the Walrus bathers are at it. … And close to my home in the North Carolina mountains, Dane Jackson made a winning run down the Green River some are calling “the greatest achievement in whitewater racing history,” and you can do it eye level.