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Putin’s ‘Temple of War’ was just the beginning. Russia is building churches, mosques, and even underground chapels to convince the nation that the invasion of Ukraine is sacred.
Source: Meduza
A war memorial church in Maryino, Moscow. The sign reads, “God is with us.”
Meduza
”The Temple of War: People and Ideas That Made the Russian Invasion Possible,” by historian Ilia Venyavkin, profiles the figures who helped Vladimir Putin prime Russians for the attack on Ukraine. Venyavkin cites a visit to the Main Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces in Patriot Park as a primary catalyst for the book. The cathedral, as Venyavkin writes in the preface, was built on Putin’s orders but “had been developing in Russian political culture for many years.” The historian draws a parallel to the Russian–Ukrainian war: Putin personally gave the order for the invasion, but the heroes of Moscow’s “Temple of War” — from Army General Sergey Surovikin to RT propagandist Margarita Simonyan — manufactured the public consent that made it possible.
That cultural foundation extends beyond the capital: The Main Cathedral is hardly the country’s only church dedicated to war and Russian soldiers. Since 2022, new churches have appeared nationwide to commemorate not only World War II casualties but also Russian troops killed in Ukraine. From mosques honoring the “fallen heroes of the Special Military Operation” to underground chapels in active war zones, Meduza examines the expanding legacy of Russia’s military places of worship.
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Meduza published this book in partnership with the StraightForward Foundation, which helps create uncensored nonfiction about Russia. You can buy a Russian-language copy of “The Temple of War” at Meduza’s “Magaz” online store (available in print and EPUB).
Main Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces, Odintsovo District, Moscow Region
Built in just two years, the Main Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces opened in 2020 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War (Russia’s name for the Soviet campaign against Nazi Germany during World War II). Standing at 95 meters (more than 310 feet) tall with its cross, it is among the world’s tallest Orthodox churches, second in Moscow only to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The cathedral comprises an upper church and a smaller lower church. Expansive mosaics adorn the upper church: some portray Orthodox saints while others depict battle scenes and military figures. The museum houses artifacts and historical exhibits, including personal items that belonged to Adolf Hitler. The cathedral falls under the authority of Patriarch Kirill.
Main Cathedral of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
Here is how Venyavkin writes about the symbolic meaning of the Main Cathedral’s details: “On the personal orders of [Defense Minister] Sergey Shoigu, every centimeter in the cathedral had to mean something. The bell tower was made 75 meters high (matching the number of years since Victory Day), the diameter of the main dome’s drum is 19 meters 45 centimeters (in honor of the year the war ended), the diameter of the dome itself is 22 meters 43 centimeters (Germany’s capitulation was signed at 22:43 [10:43 p.m.]).”
Mikhail Tereshchenko / TASS / Profimedia
“German weapons captured as war trophies were melted down and embedded in the temple’s steps. The church’s principal icon — the ‘Image of Christ Not Made by Hands’ — was painted on wooden boards salvaged from an 18th-century gun carriage, with the backs reinforced using rifle stocks. Stained-glass windows feature Soviet military orders, battle standards hang along the walls, and inscriptions styled in Old Russian calligraphy adorn the surfaces.”
Sergei Karpukhin / TASS / Profimedia
Mikhail Tereshchenko / TASS / Profimedia
Church of the Holy Martyrs Anatolius and Protoleon, Moscow
Construction began in 2015 on a memorial church complex in Maryino dedicated to soldiers who died in what Russians call the Great Patriotic War, coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the war’s end. The church honors Saints Anatolius and Protoleon, martyrs who served as officials in the court of the pagan Emperor Diocletian, secretly practiced Christianity, and were executed after acknowledging their faith. Modeled after St. Basil’s Cathedral, the three-domed church is being built entirely through charitable contributions, with fundraising ongoing. The neon sign pictured reads, “God is with us.”
Meduza
The project includes two churches — a large one with capacity for 800 worshipers dedicated to those killed in World War II, and a smaller one for 100 worshipers honoring war correspondents. The “gallery of glory,” consisting of icons and memorial plaques with journalists’ names, currently lists 696 names: 641 who died from 1941 to 1945, and 55 killed in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Syria, and the Donbas. A mosaic inscription above the church entrance reads: “Grant rest, O Lord, to the souls of thy servants: leaders, warriors, and war correspondents who gave their lives on the field of battle for faith and Fatherland, and all who labored for victory, and grant them eternal memory.” According to Father Vitaly Ulyanov, who oversees the church, some of the gallery’s marble plaques were left blank intentionally to accommodate new names amid what he called “turbulent times.”
Meduza
Church of the Samara Icon of the Mother of God, Samara
The first service at the newly opened Church of the Samara Icon of the Mother of God took place on January 6, 2025. The church is officially dedicated to “Special Military Operation warriors.” Local residents had opposed the construction and, at public hearings organized by Samara’s municipal administration, lobbied officials to build a school, playground, or park instead of “yet another unnecessary church.”
Samara Metropolia
The cathedral was built at the initiative of Metropolitan Sergius of Samara and Novokuibyshevsk, who oversaw the project. In the summer of 2025, however, the Holy Synod forced him into retirement, and the dome and cross were consecrated that November by a new metropolitan — Feodosius, born Sergey Chashchin, a graduate of the Moscow Aviation Institute who served in the Strategic Rocket Forces in the late 1990s.
Samara Metropolia
Chapel-Church in Honor of the Icon of the Mother of God “Seeking the Lost,” Khabarovsk
In 2023, a chapel honoring the icon of the Mother of God “Seeking the Lost” was built in just six months on the grounds of the Air Force and Air Defense headquarters of the Eastern Military District in Khabarovsk region. During the ceremonial consecration of the cornerstone, Metropolitan Artemy of Khabarovsk and Priamurye (pictured surrounded by military officers) said: “A military operation is underway, but in essence — a war against all the malice that Western civilization has unleashed on us, which long ago forgot God, which imposes practically Satanic things on other peoples, having abandoned morality and God’s truth.”
Amur Metropolia of the Russian Orthodox Church
Major General Vladimir Kulikov, acting commander of the 11th Air Force and Air Defense Army, also spoke during the laying of the chapel’s cornerstone, noting that the church “will remind us of all those who died while performing combat missions during the Special Military Operation on Ukrainian territory.”
Amur Metropolia of the Russian Orthodox Church
Today, the chapel regularly hosts special services and tours for conscripted soldiers.
Amur Metropolia of the Russian Orthodox Church
Amur Metropolia of the Russian Orthodox Church
Church of the Great Martyr George the Victorious, Pushkin, Leningrad Region
Plans to build a church honoring St. George the Victorious in Pushkin first became public in February 2024 — officials said relatives of troops fighting in Ukraine had requested the construction. The church is planned for a standard residential neighborhood. According to the news outlet Bumaga, the Committee for State Control, Use and Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments specifically raised the permitted building height on the site from 12 to 30 meters (the height of a 10-story building) to accommodate the church.
Meduza
According to the project, the church walls will come within 10 meters (about 33 feet) of the windows of a neighboring residential building. Local residents continue to oppose the church’s construction, despite work having begun.
St. Petersburg Administration
The site plan includes not only the church but also a “clergy residence with dining hall,” a bell tower with viewing platform, a memorial promenade, and parking facilities. A VKontakte group promoting the church project describes the structure as a ”Warrior Church.” A temporary chapel currently occupies the future church site.
Meduza
Project for a Church Complex in Honor of the Assembly of the Most Holy Mother of God, Krasnodar
In 2025, local officials announced plans to construct the Cathedral of the Most Holy Mother of God, dedicated to “heroes of the Special Military Operation and all Russian Armed Forces.” The building is designed to be among Russia’s tallest Orthodox churches, reaching 70 meters (230 feet) from base to the top of its main cross. Initially, the church was to be built on Rozhdestvenskaya Embankment, in the only large green space in the Yubileyny neighborhood. Following protests from residents, construction was relocated to another area of Yubileyny, though it remains within a green zone. Individual activists continue to picket against the church’s construction.
Russian Architecture
Project for the Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Mother of God, Kopanskoy Settlement, Krasnodar Territory
According to the Prokhram project’s website, the church in the hamlet of Kopanskoye will be dedicated to “perpetuating the memory of warriors who performed military exploits for the Motherland at various historical and geographical frontiers of Rus.” An album titled “Departed to God” — featuring photographs of Russian soldiers and war correspondents killed in the war with Ukraine — has been published on the church’s website. All the names and photographs “will be memorialized within the walls of the church now under construction.”
Prokhram LLC
Project for a Mosque in Honor of ”Special Military Operation” Fighters, Yekaterinburg
A groundbreaking ceremony took place in October 2024 at Yekaterinburg’s Shuvakysh Forest Park for a mosque dedicated to “Special Military Operation heroes.” Muftis from different regions and Muslim servicemen attended the ceremony. The future mosque, with four minarets, will accommodate 500 to 700 people.
Meduza
The stone at the site of the future mosque, 2026. According to calculations by the news outlet Vot Tak, the building’s construction could cost approximately 800 million rubles (about $10.5 million).
Meduza
The construction site for the future mosque, 2026. “Here, in this beautiful place, the mosque will serve as a reminder of the price our country paid to preserve its independence and sovereignty,” Moscow Mufti Albir Krganov, head of the Spiritual Assembly of Muslims of Russia, said at the 2024 groundbreaking ceremony.
Meduza
Churches in the Combat Zone
A bunker chapel on the Krasny Liman axis (a major front line in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region), 2025.
Lipetsk Metropolia
Military chaplain Senior Lieutenant Vasily Zudilov conducts a service in an underground chapel in a combat zone, October 31, 2025.
Stanislav Krasilnikov / RIA Novosti / Sputnik / Profimedia
Soldiers in the Donetsk region have built what they say is Russia’s largest underground military chapel, the Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin. The subterranean church has a ceiling height of four meters and features an interior dome, with a capacity of up to 100 worshipers. It is the 27th such dugout church that Russian forces have constructed in Ukraine’s war zone.
Archpriest Pyotr Gritsenko
Underground church at a temporary training ground of Russia’s Center forces, one of five operational-strategic commands directing combat operations in Ukraine.
Stanislav Krasilnikov / RIA Novosti / Sputnik / Profimedia
In 2023, Buryatia’s regional authorities deployed a temporary Buddhist temple — a traditional yurt — to the war zone in Ukraine for soldiers from the region. A year later, Russian forces opened a permanent field temple, known as a dugan, at the 36th Army’s position.
gazeta-n1
Russia’s first mobile mosque for Muslim soldiers, housed in a converted UAZ military vehicle, deployed to the Ukraine war zone, March 2025.
Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Republic of Tatarstan
Mobile mosques, donated by Muslims from the Moscow region, at a military base in Kolomna, awaiting deployment to Ukraine, February 2025.
Press service of the Kolomna administration
A mobile military chapel in Volgograd, June 2023, honoring St. Sergius of Radonezh before being sent to Ukraine.
Southern Military District press service
A fortified dugout chapel honoring the icon of Our Lady of Kazan on the Kherson front line, 2023.