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Using the example of the Jehovah's Witnesses (JW) religious organization, the authors analyze the situation for representatives of religious minorities in Ukraine in connection with the Russia-Ukraine’s war. Being institutions that, even in peacetime, occupying a non-dominant position in the structure of the religious life of Ukraine, religious minorities suffer the most from the war and its consequences compared to the majority religions.

The purpose of the article is to clarify the scale of resource losses (human, material, moral), the nature of the religious minorities representatives’ activities (in this case, the JW) and the possibilities of preserving and revitalizing the activities of their communities.

As a result of the study, the authors came to conclusions that can be considered a certain novelty: the war accelerated the processes of civil and national identification, strengthened people in their faith, and intensified socially useful and humanitarian assistance to the needy from religious minorities. The vast majority of communities took a distinctly patriotic position, contributing in various ways to the victory of Ukraine in the war and the establishment of a stable and just peace.

At the same time, the authors predict that Ukraine after the war may be threatened with a decrease in religious pluralism due to the impossibility of reviving the activities of some small religious groups, which will not be able to return to their pre-war usual life, even if the conditions of latitude and state guarantees of human rights are preserved in the religious sphere and their communities

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SKHID (EAST) 2023, Vol.4, Issue 2, 9-16 https://doi.og/10.21847/2411-3093.2023.4(2).291515             v.tytarenko@kubg.edu.ua  © The Author(s). Published by Ukrainian                lfilip56@gmail.com                               Cultural Study and Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University                War as a new reality for religious minorities of Ukraine (on the example of Jehovah's Witnesses)  Vita Tytarenko (ORCID 0000-0003-1073-9792) H. Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy  The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Ukraine)  Liudmyla Fylypovych (ORCID 0000-0002-0886-3965) H. Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy  The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Ukraine)                               Introduction For various reasons, the subject of religious minorities has never been a dominant research problem for domestic historical, religious or theological science. In Soviet times, religious issues were generally viewed with negative con-notations, and Jehovah's Witnesses (JW) were labeled as a destructive anti-Soviet sect that should be banned, which was systematically done. Since 1991, there have been attempts to perform an unbiased study of this religious movement. In the early days, these studies were dominated by the desire to re-store the rights of the JW not as representatives of Christi-anity, i.e. confessors of faith in Jesus Christ, but as a polit-ically damaged institution as a result of the Soviet authori-ties’ anti-religious campaign. Despite the official state  registration, this religious organization was perceived by the society, and especially by other Christian churches, as a non-Christian sect, and accordingly, the scientific study of JW was objectively and subjectively limited. To this day, in the Christian environment, JW are considered sectari-ans, deceivers, non-Christians (Trachuk, 2016). World sta-tistics still do not include JW in the list of Christian currents, highlighting them in a separate line (Jehovah's Witness 2006). The apotheosis of anti-sectarian slander on JW are the books by the russian sectarian A. Dworkin (2002). Rus-sian science is known for its narrowly religious (pro-Ortho-dox) orientations, although more or less objective studies began to occur there as well (Gordienko, 2002; Kanterov, 2006). Ukrainian historians and scholars of religion, when studying JW started from fundamentally different positions. Already in the first reference and textbook editions, JW ap-peared as a historically regular phenomenon, as a partici-pant in religious processes in Ukraine. Employees of the Department of Religious Studies at H.S. Skovoroda Insti-ABSTRACT Using the example of the Jehovah's Witnesses (JW) religious organization, the au-thors analyze the situation for representatives of religious minorities in Ukraine in con-nection with the Russia-Ukraine’s war. Being institutions that, even in peacetime, occu-pying a non-dominant position in the structure of the religious life of Ukraine, religious minorities suffer the most from the war and its consequences compared to the majority religions. The purpose of the article is to clarify the scale of resource losses (human, material, moral), the nature of the religious minorities representatives’ activities (in this case, the JW) and the possibilities of preserving and revitalizing the activities of their communities. As a result of the study, the authors came to conclusions that can be considered a certain novelty: the war accelerated the processes of civil and national identification, strengthened people in their faith, and intensified socially useful and humanitarian as-sistance to the needy from religious minorities. The vast majority of communities took a distinctly patriotic position, contributing in various ways to the victory of Ukraine in the war and the establishment of a stable and just peace. At the same time, the authors predict that Ukraine after the war may be threatened with a decrease in religious pluralism due to the impossibility of reviving the activities of some small religious groups, which will not be able to return to their pre-war usual life, even if the conditions of latitude and state guarantees of human rights are preserved in the religious sphere and their communities. KEYWORDS war,  religious minorities,  Jehovah's Witnesses,  religious identification.                                                                              V. Tytarenko, L. Fylypovych (В.Титаренко, Л. Филипович) СХІД Том 4 (2) 2023    Релігієзнавчі проблеми в сучасному глобалізованому світі 10 tute of Philosophy always defended the principles of his-toricism, objectivity, non-confessionalism (Kolodnyi, Lyu-bovyk 1996; Kolodnyi (ed.), Yarotskyi (ed.) 1999; 2008). Such an unbiased approach to the study of JW was sup-ported by other researchers in Ukraine (Lyudyna i svit, 2000; Nikolaev, Marynychenko, 2015; Palchevska, 2016; Yarotskyi, 2012). In the development of scientific approaches to the study of JW, interesting studies by the domestic historian K. Berezhko (2005; 2011; 2020) appeared. Despite this, the religious information space of Ukraine is still filled with sufficiently critical materials about JW1, apologetically aimed at protecting religious interests. Such narrow evaluations of this organization have the right to exist, but for the balance of existing opinions, as an alter-native view, there is a need to voice neutral approaches. In part, it is already presented in well-known works of Ukrainian scientists (Nikolaev, Marynchenko, 2015; Fylypovych, 2021a, b). This research aims to offer a scientific analysis of the activities of the JW religious organization, which is a reli-gious minority in Ukraine, the interest in which is gradually increasing, as evidenced by publications (Kolodnyi, Fil-ipovych, Aristova, 2021; Filipovych, Tytarenko, Pyvo-varova, 2022; Fylypovych, Kolodnyi, 2022; Fylypovych, Ty-tarenko, 2022), and therefore interest in JW is also grow-ing. Academic scholars continue to deeply study the reli-gious sources of JW, their history and activities (Yarotskyi, 2013). Especially attractive for real scholars of religion are the issues of the religion’s evolution, the change of worldview paradigms in the minds of its believers, in particular, this religious trend. The first attempts to understand the new trends that have appeared recently in the activities of the JW in connection with the Russia-Ukraine’s war fall on the year of the 70th anniversary of the sad event – the depor-tation of the JW from Ukraine to Siberia. Before this date, an international conference was held, as a result of which an interesting collection of materials appeared: "Operation "North": 70 years later." Important lessons of repression for faith" (2021). These trends require further analysis, which is pro-posed by the authors of this material, who not only meticu-lously studied historical sources, religious and liturgical lit-erature of the JW, in particular their journals, annual re-ports, but also actively used such a research method as included observation, repeatedly visiting JW communities in different cities, in the Ukrainian Bethel, communicating with members of this religious organization. This permitted to collect interesting material and draw extraordinary con-clusions.  Results and Discussion of the research Religious minorities in the conditions of the monopoly of the ruling/dominant churches and the protectionist policy of the state towards the latter have always been disadvan-taged, discriminated against, unequal, even prohibited. This applied to both Western and Eastern European coun-tries at all times. Foreign believers and foreign Slavs are common names for religious minorities in the russian em-pire (Religious minorities…, 2021: 30). In Soviet times, the non-Orthodox were called sectarian, totalitarian and de-structive. This also applies to Jehovah's Witnesses (JW),  1(Religious society of Jehovah's Witnesses, 2001; RISU, 2014; Who are "Jehovah's Witnesses"? URL: https://kpba.edu.ua/statti/662 -svidkuegovu.html] whose pre-independence history, until 1991, is a history of persecution, mistrust, and suspicion on the part of the au-thorities and society, other religious organizations. During the political repressions of the Soviet era, the apogee of which was Operation "North", as a result of which 10,000 Ukrainian JW were forcibly deported en masse to Siberia, state anti-religious propaganda, as well as the negative attitude formed in society towards Yeho-vists (Fylypovych, 2021b), the followers of this religious or-ganization closed themselves within small Bible study groups. Even after the accusations were withdrawn in 1965, they were forbidden to return to Ukraine. Being ac-tually underground, the witnesses were forced to confirm the secrecy and illegitimacy of their structure.  Since 1991, radical changes in the status and struc-ture of the organization began. State registration of a religious organization was an im-portant step here. Thanks to the JW leadership, who quickly navigated the changed circumstances, it was pos-sible to achieve an official status for the JW. The Ukrainian authorities, which after a 50-year ban on this denomina-tion, registered the JW precisely as a religious organiza-tion, thus proving that it considers them one of the subjects of state-church relations. In the conditions of many churches’ rehabilitation, which were recognized as victims of political repression, the JW managed to prove that they are also the injured party. On February 28, 1991, the Jehovah's Witnesses re-ligious organization was officially registered in Ukraine. This was the first registration of Witnesses on the territory of the USSR and one of the first registrations of religion on the territory of Ukraine. Therefore, in 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed, Jehovah's Witnesses in Ukraine, thanks to the registered status of a religious organization, received freedom for their religious activities. They immediately took advantage of these opportunities and held their first congress in Lviv, which then gathered a large number of their followers. And 1993 became a turning point for Jehovah's Witnesses in Ukraine. At that time, the first international congress was held in Kyiv, which was attended by thousands of people from abroad. During the days of the congress, 7,000 peo-ple were baptized, that is, accepted faith in Jehovah. Since then, the number of Witnesses in Ukraine has been con-stantly growing, and before the war (as of 2020), there were 128,614 of them (Service Report... 2020). For the year 2023, the JW website gives a figure of 127,378 min-isters who teach the Bible, united in 1,429 congregations. The slight decrease in the number of JW is explained by the forced migration of the organization's members in con-nection with the Russia-Ukraine’s war. JW, as well as other religious organizations (RO) in Ukraine, during the 30 years of its state independence, went through several stages in its development, and they are directly correlated with the political waves experienced by Ukraine. If a representative of a conservative political force focused on russia with its autocracy, neo-imperial-ism, and totalitarianism was in power, then in the religious environment permitted and impermissible religions are marked, those that receive approval and support, even pat-ronage from the state. War as a new reality for religious minorities of Ukraine (on the example of Jehovah's Witnesses) Війна як нова реальність для релігійних меншин України (на прикладі Свідків Єгови)                                                                   SKHID Vol. 4 (2) 2023  Problems of religious studies in the modern globalized world 11 In such periods, signs and sometimes direct manifes-tations of the so-called anti-sectarian policy appear. All re-ligious minorities feel uneasy, fearful, even dangerous in the religious field of Ukraine. The return to power of demo-cratic forces guarantees freedom of conscience and reli-gion, equality before the law, peace, to tell the truth, not without problems, in religious life. JW, like other religious minorities, experienced several waves in the sphere of state-church relations: 1) 1991-1993 – uncertainty in the relations between re-ligious organizations and the state (the old models of total state control over the activities of the RO no longer work, and the new ones have not yet developed), which the JW took advantage of by holding an international congress in Kyiv; 2) 1994-1996 – acquaintance with the world experience and the search for a democratic model of state-church re-lations (SCC); active visits of the JW abroad; 3) 1996-1999 – formation of a new attitude of the state to the church and the church to the state, creation of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organiza-tions (AUCCRO), active establishment and development of a confessional network; surge in the number of communi-ties; 4) 2000-2009 – relative stability of the state-church re-lations (SCR), development of specific mutual relations forms; active construction of Kingdom Halls; 5) 2010-2013 – a period of stagnation of SCR in Ukraine and a return to Soviet methods of managing the religious sphere; 6) 2013-2014 – Maidan trials, reactions of various de-nominations to events, awareness and implementation of the new role of religion in society, interreligious solidarity on the Maidan, formation of the civil Church; The JW took a neutral position; 7) 2014 - until 24.02.2022 – the situation with JW de-veloped in 2 different directions: • Development of a mutually beneficial partnership in the unoccupied territories based on: a) state policy of max-imum non-interference in the religious life of the JW and b) acceptance and respect for state laws, taking into account the historical traditions of the Ukrainian people; • Implementation of the repressive laws of the aggres-sor country into the religious reality of the annexed Crimea and the temporarily occupied territories of a part of the Do-netsk and Luhansk regions, changing the equal status of JW to sectarian and undesirable, for which JW are sub-jected to persecution and bans; an attempt by a religious organization to adapt to new conditions. In general, real, not paper, religious freedom prevails in the major territory of the state of Ukraine, when millions of people can freely practice their religion as they wish. They should not fear unjustified punishment for reading the Bible or Bible literature, for attending church services, or for dis-cussing the Bible with family, friends, acquaintances, or those willing. The legislation of Ukraine in the religious sphere testi-fies to the existence of rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution and the law, which are protected by the state. Thanks to the democratic transformations in Ukraine, the JW from a closed sect, which was an alterna-tive reality of the Soviet reality, is gradually turning into a denomination open to Ukrainian society (with the exception of the occupied territories). What indicates such changes? The attitude of the state towards the religious organiza-tion "Jehovah's Witnesses".  Has changed Society's attitude towards JW and their organization is changing.  The attitude of the JW to the state and society is chang-ing. As a result of such changes, it can be stated that JW are turning into a full-fledged element of the religious life of Ukraine. Characterizing the latter, we note that by 2022, 37,000 religious organizations were registered in Ukraine, and 97 percent are, in fact, Christian organizations. Among the Christians, the Orthodox dominated, they numbered more than 50 percent, which are concentrated in two main churches: The Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the Ukrain-ian Orthodox Church. According to the data of state bodies, there are cur-rently 7,097 religious’ organizations in Ukraine that belong to the structure of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. 12410 are structures of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. In addi-tion, there are Catholics, Greek-Catholics (more than 3,500 parishes), Protestants (who count 25 percent of the total network of religious organizations in Ukraine), Mus-lims, Jews, Buddhists, etc. in Ukraine (Zvit pro merezhu, 2021). Among all religious organizations, almost 130,000 Wit-nesses are united in almost 1,500 (according to the JW) or almost 1,000 (according to the State Service for Ethnopoli-tics and Freedom of Conscience) communities, which is a small percentage of the total number of religious organiza-tions registered in Ukraine - 4% only. If you count the num-ber of Witnesses among believers, and there are 28 million of them out of the approximately 40 million population of Ukraine (70% of Ukrainians declare their faith in God), then only 0.46% of them are counted (data until 02/24/2022). Like any religious organization, the JW before the war had 2,819 so-called clergymen. There were 157 Sunday schools (according to the Report of the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience). The question arises: is such a percentage of JW organ-izations and believers too much or too little. In our opinion, statistics do not always correspond to the real presence of religious organizations in the religious field of the country, which depends on the activity of one or another organiza-tion, on the efficiency of their faithful. If we compare the number of JW and Orthodox, then Orthodox believers are much more – about 15 million, but they are not as visible and not as audible as Jehovah's Wit-nesses or representatives of other small, not so large, or-ganizations, which are Orthodox. In the history of the JW in already independent Ukraine, there were years that tes-tify that the Witnesses grew by 20 percent every year, and even more. But since a certain time, the growth rate has stabilized, the annual mass influx of new members has stopped, but still it is stable somewhere around 5% every year. We can say that the Witnesses have not conserved their statistical growth, but, on the contrary, thanks to the status of a registered religious organization, i.e. recognized by the Ukrainian state, the number of Witnesses is not de-creasing, they have not exhausted all their resources, therefore we can expect a further increase in the number of Witnesses and activation of their activities. By the way, it is the JW in the Protestant environment that demonstrates the highest dynamics of community growth. Thus, the increase for 2021 was 31 communities – from 897 (2020) to 928 communities (2021). It can be as-sumed that one of the factors that influenced the increase                                                                              V. Tytarenko, L. Fylypovych (В.Титаренко, Л. Филипович) СХІД Том 4 (2) 2023    Релігієзнавчі проблеми в сучасному глобалізованому світі 12 in the number of this religious direction was the wide cov-erage in the infospace of the events of the 70-year history, which were related to the deportation of JW to Siberia un-der the code name "Operation "North". As part of the anni-versary celebrations, a number of events were held in April 2021, including the scientific and practical conference "Op-eration "North" – 70 years later. Forgotten lessons of re-pression for faith", with the involvement of a wide range of both Ukrainian and foreign scientists, as well as civil serv-ants, deputies, and eyewitnesses to the events (Fylypovych, 2021a). In addition, attention is drawn to Jehovah's Witnesses in connection with the gross violation of their rights and freedoms in the Russian Federation, due to the ban and liquidation of their activities there. The campaign to perse-cute this organization has been condemned by a number of international organizations — the United Nations (UN), the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the European Union and certain states, including Germany, the United States of America, and others. Constant monitoring of the situation in the Russian Federation is carried out by analytical and human rights centers, for example, RISU – Religious Infor-mation Service of Ukraine. The dynamics of the organization members’ growth and the number of communities were seriously affected by the events of recent years. Among them are COVID and war. Under the conditions of quarantine due to COVID-19, the religious situation in Ukraine has changed. It worsened, prohibitive measures negatively affected the activity of members and the life of communities. And this applies to all religious organizations, not only Witnesses. But the Wit-nesses quickly got their bearings and found the latest forms for studying the Bible, for meetings of their faithful, everything has been moved mostly online, even people of the older generation have mastered modern gadgets in or-der not to suspend their activities. In a word, in such force majeure circumstances, the Witnesses demonstrated that they are a living religious organization that continues its ex-istence in the religious field of Ukraine and is becoming more and more visible in this general sky. Russia's military aggression against Ukraine, which in its active phase began on February 24, 2022, led to serious changes in the number of organizations and their structure (Fylypovych, Kolodnyi, 2022). Due to military actions and the capture of certain cities and villages, due to the occu-pation of part of the territory of Ukraine, JW began to leave their places of permanent residence, as they were threat-ened not only with persecution in these territories in ac-cordance with Russian laws (JW have been banned in Russia since 2017), but also with physical threats to their lives and health of Ukrainian citizens. The JW experienced active migration, resettlement of the faithful to Russia, western Ukraine, and abroad. Characterizing the status of the JW in the structure of the religious life of Ukraine, it is necessary to note such a feature as the regionalization of religious organizations of the Witnesses. The general trends are that the vast major-ity of Witnesses (and this has happened historically) is con-centrated in the western regions, regional centers and large cities more than in villages and towns. According to the reports of the Witnesses themselves, in some villages of Transcarpathia, the ratio of JW to other local residents is 1 to 5. That is, Transcarpathia is a kind of incubator, one might say, for Jehovah's Witnesses, although there are certain exceptions to this general trend. After the mass exodus of the JW from the eastern re-gions to the West, there were even more of them here. For example, in the Zaporizhzhia region, until recently, a large number of meetings of Jehovah's Witnesses were ob-served, because it was there that Witnesses deported to Siberia, who eventually settled there, were allowed to re-turn. But in the conditions of life dangers associated with Russian aggression, their number has significantly de-creased. Existing communities of the JW in Mariupol suf-fered serious destruction – and not only the buildings of the Kingdom Halls. In general, we can say that the activities of the JW in the cities occupied by Russian troops have stopped, because the JW actively left those territories due to bans and persecution. And in other front-line or liberated areas, it decreased to a minimum, and in some places it never recovered. Many JW went abroad. Their return is quite problem-atic, because firstly, there is nowhere to go, the halls are destroyed, the communities are scattered; secondly, they were well received abroad or in the western regions of Ukraine. All-Ukrainian JW "Betel" center in Ukraine helped refu-gees and temporarily displaced persons a lot. On May 20, 2001, the All-Ukrainian JW Center in Ukraine, located in Bryukhovychy, began its work. It has a religious service that not only coordinates the activities of Jehovah's Wit-nesses, but also makes a significant contribution to the de-velopment of Ukrainian society, which has historical signif-icance. In addition to traditional activities, which did not stop either during the pandemic or during the war, the cen-ter was actively involved in helping refugees, not only in its relifion organization. Translation work, thanks to which materials are created in the Ukrainian language, has a positive effect on the lan-guage situation in Ukraine. This is not only about printed publications, but also Ukrainian songs, audio, video, car-toons in the Ukrainian language, etc. Thus, in 2014, the world saw the "Translation of the New World" in modern Ukrainian. Witnesses state that he included the latest dis-coveries in the field of biblical studies, and the decisions made regarding changes in the translation were based on older manuscripts that appeared after the translation by P. Kulish, I. Nechuy-Levytskyi, I. Pulyuy (1903) and I. Ohienko (1962). The expediency of new philological and translation innovations should be investigated by scientists in the relevant fields, but we admit that the appearance of this translation contributed to the growth in the number of Ukrainian-speaking JW communities in the central, southern and eastern parts of Ukraine. The updated version of the Bi-ble is available in 187 languages, including Ukrainian. JW are extremely efficient during natural disasters and emergencies. And this was shown by the challenges of the war, and especially the military events. Thus, in 2014-15, Jehovah's Witnesses welcomed 7,600 co-religionists and their family members, including non-Witnesses, from Do-netsk and Luhansk regions into their homes. Their human-itarian aid amounted to 149 tons of products and 21 tons of clothes. Psychological rehabilitation of the victims was organized. Witnesses used their resources to restore dam-aged housing in Sloviansk (Svidky Yehovy, 2015). Thanks to this, dozens of people changed their lives and became useful members of society. That is, it is a kind of spiritual help, spiritual therapy that helps people quickly rehabilitate after imprisonment. In the conditions of war, it is extremely difficult to carry out this work, that is why such forms of work are partially curtailed. War as a new reality for religious minorities of Ukraine (on the example of Jehovah's Witnesses) Війна як нова реальність для релігійних меншин України (на прикладі Свідків Єгови)                                                                   SKHID Vol. 4 (2) 2023  Problems of religious studies in the modern globalized world 13 Being successful preachers and missionaries, JW ac-tively preach. They found and used various forms of this activity. For example, they were present in places of liberty deprivation, constantly communicating with prisoners, providing literature in prisons or colonies, distributing Bi-bles, corresponding with people held there, and preaching. A large number of people then accept the faith.  The "Betel" Center coordinates the Bible education pro-gram in about 40 places of execution in Ukraine. Thanks to this, dozens of people changed their lives and became useful members of society. That is, it is a kind of spiritual help, spiritual therapy that helps people quickly rehabilitate after imprisonment. In the conditions of war, it is extremely difficult to carry out this work, that is why such forms of work are partially curtailed. Witnesses also actively work with national minorities, distribute Bible literature in various languages. Separate gatherings are created, which are held in Korean, even in Uzbek. That is, any person who lives in the territory of Ukraine and is not an ethnic Ukrainian can find under-standing, spiritual support from Jehovah's Witnesses and, most importantly, can develop spiritually together with this organization. This religious organization works with so-cially vulnerable groups, groups at social risk, for example, with AIDS patients or drug addicts. That is, they do not des-pise these social strata of our population, but are very ac-tive and, in fact, instead of the state, solve a huge number of social problems that Ukrainian society faces. They pay special attention to those who have lost sight and hearing. Focusing on these defectological groups, the JW initiated in 2018 the first translation of the New Testament into the sign language used by deaf people in Ukraine and the for-mer CIS countries. On this occasion, in October 2018, the Central Board of the Ukrainian Society of the Deaf noted this important event for people with hearing impairments and wrote: "now deaf people can perceive part of the Holy Scriptures in a sign language they understand... We sincerely thank you for your cooperation for the benefit of deaf citizens of Ukraine". Useful translation activity was also noted by RISU: "the 33rd of the 66 parts of the Bible in sign language was published in Ukraine. This means that exactly half of the Holy Scriptures have already been translated" (Svidky Yehovy vydaly povnu Bibliyu..., 2020). It is quite possible that Ukraine will become the second country in the world after the USA, where the entire Bible will be translated into sign language. In this way, JW per-form an important social function by socializing, including people, forgotten members of our society, through Bible study in their congregations to the real life. JW worthily represent the national community of believ-ers among foreign brothers in faith. Thus, in July 2018, an international mass service was held in Lviv at the Arena-Lviv stadium. In addition to Ukrainians, it was visited by 3,500 co-religionists from the USA, Canada and seven Eu-ropean countries. The center organized numerous events to best present Ukrainian culture and the country's land-marks to foreign guests: a concert program at the Solomiya Krushelnytska Opera Theater and at the Maria Zanko-vetska Drama Theater, ancient castles, costume tours of the city, in combination with Ukrainian folk songs, dances, national dishes, and the playing of folk musical instruments made quite an impression on the guests. One of Ukraine's leading information sources – the online publication "Ukrainian Pravda" noted that "according to the most mod-est estimates of the event’s organizers, foreign Jehovah's Witnesses left about $2 million in Lviv during their one-week stay" (Salyvonchyk, 2018). A factor such as the construction of Kingdom Halls played a major role in the establishment of the JW as a religious organization in Ukraine. When religious buildings are built, this indicates the financial, material, personnel capabilities of a religious organization and its good man-agement. Some religious organizations in Ukraine still do not have their religious buildings. And the Witnesses have built many new ones over the past 30 years. At the same time, they use the latest construction methods, modern building materials and tools, work as a team to build not only their religious buildings, but also help others. The halls are ecologically clean, comfortable, they can be quickly as-sembled and placed in any place. When people see that such religious structures are being built, they gain more trust: it means that there is a permit for the construction of these structures, it means that it is a legitimate organiza-tion, they are not temporary in tents here, but take root for a long time. Unfortunately, it was the JW buildings that suffered the most from destruction during the war. According to moni-toring data carried out by MAR (Workshop of Academic Religious Studies) as part of the "Religion in Fire" project, about 70 halls of kingdoms were completely destroyed, 10 more were severely destroyed (data as of May 15, 2023). The most damaged buildings were in the regions where hostilities were and battles are being held: Kharkiv, Kyiv, Kherson, Donetsk, Sumy, and Luhansk regions. (Kate-horia: Svidky Yehovy, 2022). Not only the halls of king-doms, but also Orthodox churches were destroyed there. But if for the Orthodox their losses make 1.2% (152 out of 12,500), then for the JW they are 4% (61 out of 1,500). That is, religious minorities are the most affected by the loss of religious buildings. The JW is increasingly responding to the complex is-sues of our reality, including: the attitude to different na-tionalities, to the authorities, to the Russia-Ukraine war, to the annexation of the Crimea, to covid and the related quarantine. Today, the neutrality in secular affairs and cer-tain isolationist policies announced by the Witnesses are no longer working. Being citizens of a single country, one cannot be neutral in matters of global and national survival, which are war and its consequences. JW monitors their losses. Thus, according to one of the latest (fifteenth) press releases from the JW, 47 heralds were killed, 97 heralds were injured, 22,568 heralds were forced to leave their homes. It is known that 590 residences in JW were destroyed, 645 residences were severely dam-aged, and 1,722 residences suffered minor damage (Press Release No. 15, 2022). Realizing the new realities of the war, the JW organized 27 Committees for Emergency Situations, which are con-cerned with meeting the needs of fellow believers, helping with moving to safer areas of the country, helping to find housing, and adapting to a new place (Press Release No. 15, 2022). The Kingdom Halls of Jehovah's Witnesses (re-ligious buildings) were converted to provide shelter and re-ception for displaced persons. JW were involved in the re-moval of persons from the zone of military operations (Vidvazhni Braty..., 2022). On March 7, 2022, 10 days after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Ukraine (CSYe) appealed to the head of the Lviv Regional Administration, Mr. M.Z. Kozytsky, in which                                                                              V. Tytarenko, L. Fylypovych (В.Титаренко, Л. Филипович) СХІД Том 4 (2) 2023    Релігієзнавчі проблеми в сучасному глобалізованому світі 14 he noted that the CSYe "makes all possible efforts provid-ing assistance to injured persons and refugees... evacua-tion of refugees was organized at our own expense... their temporary resettlement, food, provision of basic needs... delivery of humanitarian aid from co-religionists of other countries." In addition to mentioning of the religious buildings’ use to accommodate thousands of believers who became TPOs (temporaly moved persons), the letter also men-tioned: "we are ready to hand over a DAF truck to the Lviv Regional State Administration free of charge for use in hu-manitarian purposes." As of May 27, more than 190 tons of humanitarian aid (cereals, legumes, canned fish and meat, as well as hygiene products) were brought to Ukraine from Poland (Dostavka dopomohy..., 2022). The war affected the JW, which became increasingly regional and nationally oriented. Manifestation of religious identity, according to Prof. A. Aristova, “a significant com-ponent for the individual of his community, patriotic posi-tion, ethnic and national identity, cultural and moral prefer-ences” (Religious identities…, 2021,51-52). Just as earlier Witnesses avoided conversations on this subject, now they openly criticize Russia, while clearly supporting Ukraine. Being an integral part of the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses in the USSR for many years, JW were generally "Soviet people" in the political and national sense. Even in Western Ukraine, in a situation of specific Ukrainian iden-tification, the JW was subjected to successful Russifica-tion. All literature and magazines were published in Rus-sian, which was used by the JW in their ministry. But grad-ually, starting in 1991, the Witnesses of Ukraine began to realize themselves as Ukrainian Jehovah's Witnesses. We understand that this is connected with the general movement of the national and spiritual people’s revival, with the historical and geographical origin of the Witnesses – the territory and culture of Western Ukraine, with the for-mation and strengthening of the state of Ukraine, with the Witnesses' awareness of their national roots, with the com-parison of Ukrainians and Russians, who kill Ukrainians. Even in the same Siberia, Irkutsk or Tomsk regions, the memory of the national – Ukrainian – roots of believers is preserved. And although family, mental and religious ties with Russia are still very strong even now, during the war, at the same time, a kind of autonomization of various parts of the once unified Soviet religious organization is taking shape. The current central governing body of the JW in Ukraine, which was created with the support of Polish and German Jehovah's Witnesses, contributes to the fact that Ukrainian Witnesses perceive themselves as part of the world, and not Russian, structure.  Conclusions As a result of the study performed, the authors reached certain conclusions that may seem too innovative not only for the scientific environment, but also for the JW itself. The JW always faced historical and existential, social and reli-gious, personal and community, global and local chal-lenges. They always accepted these challenges with dig-nity, patience, gratitude, did not grumble, and strengthened their faith in God. The JW, each maintaining its neutrality towards the state and its policies, never cooperated with various regimes, neither fascist nor communist, which cre-ated additional problems for them. JW, despite Soviet propaganda, persecution, bans, branding, earned respect from people for its honesty, principledness, truthfulness, non-conflict, correspondence of words and deeds. Having come out of the underground, from the first years of Ukraine's independence, JW became part of the general revivalist religious movement, which was mani-fested in the increase of followers and the quantitative dy-namics of JW communities. In addition, their believers in Ukraine gradually began to realize themselves as Ukrain-ian Jehovah's Witnesses. Having been an integral part of the Jehovah's Witnesses organization in the USSR for a long time, with the formation of independent Ukraine, the ties formed between Witnesses throughout the union weakened, and with the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2014, they were actually interrupted. Since 2017, when their organization in Russia was banned, the JW of Ukraine provided moral and often financial support to their brothers in faith in Russia, condemning the discriminatory policy of the Russian authorities towards the JW. Since February 24, the neutral attitude, which began to turn into a conscious rejection and ignoring of the Russian govern-ment, is taking on an anti-Russian tone. The open military aggression of Russia against Ukraine, the destruction of the halls of kingdoms throughout the temporarily occupied territory, the killing of Ukrainian citizens, believers and non-believers, contributed to the fact that the JW from a catacomb community of people with sec-tarian consciousness, traumatized by the Soviet policy of persecution and repression, turns into a full-fledged reli-gious institution, which is not easily, but gradually fits into the structure of the religious life of Ukraine. Jehovah's Wit-nesses from a closed sect, which was actually an alterna-tive reality of the Soviet reality, are turning into a denomi-nation open to Ukrainian society. Witnesses are slowly becoming a denomination rooted in Ukrainian society, within which several generations of modern believers have grown up. All of them lived in differ-ent socio-political conditions (total ban – limited permission to exist – situation of religious freedom), which certainly af-fected their confessional identity, which is experiencing dif-ferent states, including the crisis ones. Having passed the painful path from exile to recognition, the JW are perceived by Ukrainian society primarily as victims of the repressive Soviet regime. Their courageous stand in the face of com-munist persecution, mass deportation to Siberia, and suf-fering there for their faith are understandable. But the pro-test against the totalitarian communist regime, which re-sulted in a policy of neutrality or indifference to society, must now be transformed into new strategies, because the state in which the JW live is no longer alien, not totalitarian, but their own, Ukrainian and democratic, which declared respect to freedom of religion, about guarantees for its cit-izens to protect their rights in the religious sphere. Under the conditions of religious freedom, JW can freely convey the history and worldview of the Witnesses to Ukrainians, which opens up wider opportunities for reli-gious activity. The presence of the JW in Ukraine strength-ens religious pluralism in society, which strengthens and enriches society. And although there is a danger of a de-crease in religious pluralism in Ukraine due to the impossi-bility of resuming the activities of some small religious groups, which will not be able to return to their pre-war usual existence, even if the conditions of religious freedom and state guarantees of human rights in the religious sphere and their communities are preserved, the JW will always defend the right to one's own religion. Based on the experience of the JW in new circum-stances, which can be extrapolated to the life activities of any religious minority, we note that war accelerated the processes of civil and national identification in Ukraine, War as a new reality for religious minorities of Ukraine (on the example of Jehovah's Witnesses) Війна як нова реальність для релігійних меншин України (на прикладі Свідків Єгови)                                                                   SKHID Vol. 4 (2) 2023  Problems of religious studies in the modern globalized world 15 strengthened people in their faith, and intensified socially useful and humanitarian assistance to the needy from not only the majority religious currents, but also minority com-munities, the vast majority of which took a distinctly patri-otic position, contributing in various ways to Ukraine's vic-tory in the war and the establishment of a stable and just peace. The new reality, the reality of war, in which the JW, like all religious minorities, are now, is a difficult test for every-one. But we see how they, from a community of people who do not trust the world and therefore renounce it, be-come a collective capable of changing this world. Gradu-ally overcoming the negative attitude towards themselves on the part of some churches, the mistrust of society and regaining their self-respect, JW strive to become included participants in public life, to become more active as mem-bers of Ukrainian society, offering it their model of Christian life, in which the image of the ideal world as the Kingdom of God on Earth is established, where love, mutual assis-tance, support and solidarity reign.  REFERENCES Aristova, A., Kolodnyi, A., Fylypovych, L. (2021). Rivni i konfesiinist religiynoi identychnosti. 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Religiovedeniye. Entsiklopedicheskiy slovar'. Moscow (In Russian) Katehoriya: Svidky Yehovy (2022). Relihiya v ohni. https://uk.religionon-fire.mar.in.ua/wiki/Категорія:Свідки_Єгови Kolodnyi, A. M., Lyubovyk, B.O. (1996). Relihiyeznavchyy slovnyk. Kyiv, Chetverta khvylya (In Ukrainian) Kolodnyi, A., Fylypovych, L., Aristova, A. (2021). Relihiyni identychnosti v yikh sutnosti i konfesiynykh vymirakh: ukrayinskyy kontekst. Kyiv, UAR, 2021. 348 p. (In Ukrainian)  Kolodnyi, A., Yarotskyi, P. (ed.) (1999). Istoriya relihiyi v Ukrayini. Kyiv, Znannia (In Ukrainian) Lyudyna i svit (2000). Svidky Yehovy – neuperedzhenyy pohlyad. № 3. S. 48-50. URL: https://risu.ua/svidki-ye-govi-neuperedzheniy-poglyad_n34989 (In Ukrainian)  Nikolayev, I. Ye., Marynchenko, H. M. (2015). Svidky Yehovy v Ukrayini: vid stanovlennya do peresliduvannya u povoyennyy period. Naukovyy visnyk Mykolayivsʹkoho natsionalʹnoho universytetu imeni V. O. Sukhomlynsʹkoho. Istorychni nauky. 1, pp. 55-59. http://nbuv.gov.ua/UJRN/Nvmdu_2015_1_11    Operatsiya “Pivnich“: 70 rokiv po tomu vazhlyvi uroky represiy za viru (2021). Conference Paper. Kyiv, UAR, https://uarr.info/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/opera-tion-north-uk.pdf  Palchevska O. H. (2016). Ekzystentsiyno-smyslozhyttyevi oriyentatsiyi Svidkiv Yehovy. Hileya, № 104(1), p. 135–138 (In Ukrainian). PRES-RELIZ № 15. Bratersʹka lyubov dodaye syl nashym bratam i sestram v Ukrayini (2022, 29. 12). Svidky Yehovy. https://www.jw.org/uk/новини/країна/україна/Братерська-любов-додає-сил-нашим-братам-і-сестрам-в-Україні (In Ukrainian) Relihiyne tovarystvo Svidkiv Yehovy (2001). Relihiyni orhanizatsiyi na Mykolayivshchyni: istoriya ta suchas-nistʹ: naukovo-populyarnyy dovidnyk. Part. 2.URL: http://www.reglibrary.mk.ua/index.php/elektronna-bib-lioteka-mistsevikh vidan/kontent-elektronnoji-bibli-oteki/613-religini-organizatsiji-namikolajivshchini-is-toriya-ta-suchasnist-naukovo-populyarni-dovidnik-chastina-2?start=18.88.  (In Ukrainian) Report on the network of religious organizations in Ukraine (2021). https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=-j&q=&-esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwidkZC95_eBAxWN7qQKHSVbCVoQFnoE-CAkQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fdess.gov.ua%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2021%2F05%2FForm1-2021-public3.xls&usg=AOvVaw2-IyaO7fgnN2iLvY_WtiFC&opi=89978449 (In Ukrainian) Report on the service of Jehovah's witnesses in countries and territories in 2020. (2020). https://www.jw.org/uk/бібліотека/книжки/2020-службовий-рік-звіт/2020-країни-території/ (In Ukrain-ian) RISU (2014, Mai, 30) Jehovah's Witnesses. URL: https://risu.org.ua/ua/index/reference/major_reli-gions/56603/ (In Ukrainian) Salyvonchyk, V. (2018, 19.07). Do koho v dveri ne stukaly Svidky Yehovy? Kilʹka faktiv pro yikhnyu diyalʹnistʹ. Ukrayinska pravda. https://life.pravda.com.ua/col-umns/2018/07/19/232216/ (In Ukrainian)                                                                               V. Tytarenko, L. Fylypovych (В.Титаренко, Л. Филипович) СХІД Том 4 (2) 2023    Релігієзнавчі проблеми в сучасному глобалізованому світі 16 Svidky Yehovy translyuvaly spetsialʹne zibrannya v okhopleni viynoyu terytoriyi Ukrayiny (2015, 06.07) Svidky Yehovy. Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. https://www.jw.org/uk/no-vyny/krayina/ukrayina/zona-voyennykh-diy-jw-trans-lyatsiya-zibrannya Svidky Yehovy vydaly povnu Bibliyu zhestovoyu movoyu (2020, 02.04). RISU. Relihiyno-informatsiyna sluzhba Ukrayiny. https://risu.ua/svidki-yegovi-vidali-povnu-bib-liyu-zhestovoyu-movoyu_n103610 (In Ukrainian) Trachuk, T. (2016, 14.03). Svidky Yehovy: 7 naybilshykh obmaniv. CREDO: https://dyvensvit.org/top/1000704/  Vidvazhni braty dopomahayut svoyim odnovirtsyam u zoni boyovykh diy (2022, 27.04). Svidky Yehovy. https://www.jw.org/uk/новини/країна/україна/Відважні-брати-допомагають-своїм-одновірцям-у-зоні-бой-ових-дій/ (In Ukrainian) Yarotskyi, P. (2012). Svidky Yehovy. In: Entsyklopediya is-toriyi Ukrayiny, Vol. 9. Kyiv, Naukova dumka, P. 474. Yarotskyi, P. (2013). Relihiyeznavcha ekspertyza pro zmist i bohosluzhbove zastosuvannya literatury Svidkiv Yehovy. Institute of Philosophy of the National Acad-emy of Sciences of Ukraine.URL: https://uars.info/prints/rs/17-18/29.pdf  Yarotskyi, P. (ed.) (2007). Istoriya relihiyi v Ukrayini. Vol. 6. Pizniy protestantyzm v Ukrayini. Kyiv-Drohobych, Kolo, pp. 416–617.URL: http://ure-online.info/prints/ir/TOM-_6.pdf (In Ukrainian).    Війна як нова реальність для релігійних меншин України (на прикладі Свідків Єгови)  Віта Титаренко (ORCID 0000-0003-1073-9792) Інститут філософії імені Г.С. Сковороди  Національної Академії Наук України (Україна)  Людмила Филипович (ORCID 0000-0002-0886-3965) Інститут філософії імені Г.С. Сковороди  Національної Академії Наук України (Україна)  На прикладі релігійної організації Свідків Єгови (СЄ) автори аналізують ситуацію, яка складається для пред-ставників релігійних меншин в Україні у зв’язку із російсько-українською війною. Будучи і в мирний час інституціями, які в структурі релігійного життя України займають відповідно недомінантну позицію, релігійні меншини найбільше в порівняні із мажоритарними релігіями потерпають від війни та її наслідків.  Метою статті є з’ясування масштабів ресурсних втрат (людських, матеріальних, моральних), характеру актив-ностей представників релігійних меншин (в даному разі СЄ) та можливостей збереження та відродження діяльності їх громад. В результаті дослідження автори прийшли до висновків, які можна вважати певною новизною: війна пришвидшила процеси громадянської і національної ідентифікації, укріпила людей у вірі, активізувала соціально корисну і гуманітарну допомогу нужденним з боку релігійних меншин. Переважна більшість громад зайняла вира-зно патріотичну позицію, в різний спосіб сприяючи перемозі України у війні і встановленню стабільного справед-ливого миру. Разом з тим, автори прогнозують, що Україні після війни може загрожувати зменшення релігійної плюральності через неможливість відновлення діяльності деяких малочисельних релігійних груп, які не здатні бу-дуть повернутися до довоєнного звичного буття, навіть якщо збережуться умови релігійної свободи і державних гарантій прав людини в релігійній сфері та їх спільноти.  Ключові слова: війна, релігійні меншини, Свідки Єгови, релігійна ідентифікація.  Received (Надійшла до редакції): 12.08.2023,  Accepted (Прийнята до друку): 05.09.2023 Available online (Опубліковано онлайн) 30.09.2023

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