Russia sends bones of medieval warrior prince to Ukraine front to boost morale

Highlights:

• Medieval saint enlisted in Russia's war effort
• Move comes ahead of parliamentary election
• Russian forces are on the offensive in Donetsk
• Church says remains will strengthen soldiers' spirits

Bone fragments from the sword hand of a medieval Russian prince who won a famous victory over the Mongols have been sent to the front in Ukraine to ​raise army morale in the Russian Orthodox Church's latest show of support for President Vladimir Putin's war.

The sarcophagus of Grand Prince Dmitry Donskoy, who ‌died in 1389 and is revered by Russian nationalists for defeating the Mongol Golden Horde at the 1380 Battle of Kulikovo, was uncovered this summer during restoration work at Moscow's Cathedral of the Archangel inside the Kremlin.

Putin personally inspected what experts said were the prince's well-preserved remains in August, hailing them as "an absolutely unique and marvellous discovery" which reinforced the foundations of Russian history.

The Russian Orthodox Church, which ​has backed Putin throughout the conflict, said it had dispatched a fragment of Donskoy's right hand to Donetsk, one of four Ukrainian regions Putin said he ​had incorporated into Russia in 2022, a move Kyiv rejected as an illegal land grab.

Referring to Donskoy as "the holy commander," the Moscow ⁠Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church said part of his remains had been sent to the front to stand invisibly shoulder-to-shoulder with Russian troops.

"A fragment of the Grand ​Prince's right hand – the very same right hand with which he wielded his sword on Kulikovo Field – has been sent to the front to strengthen the soldiers' spirits," it said ​in a statement.

The relic, held in a small ornate casket beneath toughened glass, will be shown to Russian combat units along the more than 1,000-km front line, it said.

Donskoy, whose name was given to a Soviet tank column funded by the church in World War Two, was declared a saint by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1988.

Patriotic push

The carefully choreographed effort to use his remains in a ​public relations exercise to boost patriotism and morale comes ahead of a parliamentary election later this month.

Russian military and church officials have presented the discovery as a fortuitous find ​that could help Russian forces prevail in Ukraine, now in the fifth year of a grinding war.

The tour also comes as Russian forces seek full control of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine and as ‌diplomatic efforts ⁠to end the war have yet to yield a breakthrough.

Donskoy's relics were carried through the streets of Moscow at the weekend in a huge Orthodox procession.

At a ceremony at a World War Two memorial in Donetsk on Tuesday, Sergei Kiriyenko, Putin's first deputy Kremlin chief of staff, joined military commanders and the Russian-installed regional head in kissing the relic and making the sign of the cross as a priest read a prayer.

"Both our military personnel and the people who live in Donbas need strengthening from above, need God's help ​and the blessing of our saints," Metropolitan ​Vladimir of Donetsk and Mariupol, a ⁠senior Moscow-appointed cleric, said. Donbas is a broader area incorporating Donetsk and neighbouring Luhansk which Russia controls almost in its entirety.

Elsewhere, commanders have presented Donskoy's remains as evidence that God is on Russia's side.

The Defence Ministry on Wednesday released footage of troops in the ​Sverdlovsk region attending a church service carrying icons and Orthodox flags, alongside an interview with a commander who said the relics ​would support Russia's victory.

Critics, ⁠however, have accused the Church of breaking with religious protocol to please the Kremlin. They have also questioned why Donskoy's remains, whose location was broadly known for decades, were recovered and venerated only now, 38 years after he was declared a saint.

"By the fifth year of war, the Church leadership in Moscow began to wonder what else it could do to show ⁠its support for ​what Russia terms its 'special military operation'," Alexander Zanemonets, an Orthodox priest and historian based outside Russia, wrote ​in a note for the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center whose director Russia has designated a "foreign agent."

"It had already sent priests to the front lines, instituted mandatory prayers for Russian victory in every church, and flown icons ​over cities. A state embroiled in war will try to compel all institutions, including religious ones, to participate in it."