Abstract
In Russia’s 2022 Ukraine war the role of religion is manifest in the“metaphysical” narratives anchoring (and feeding into) it, and – to that end – inreligion’s amalgamation with apparently “anticipatory” nationalist-eschatologicalphilosophies. These depict themselves as “spiritual” to play the role of ideological“proto-relig ions” in order to ground old-new policies of territorial conquest in allegedmeta-historical patterns. The return of the use of religion to justify aggression andwar by simplifying complex conflict patterns and clothing bullying, violence andkilling into allegedly metaphysical ideals is a signal of historical regress.