This article explores how Patriarch Bartholomew’s visit to Ukraine in August 2021 was framed in nine Ukrainian digital newspapers. The analysis shows that two diametrically different framings, apparent through word choice, aspects of the visit that were covered, and the participants and experts interviewed. Four newspapers, and in particular two belonging to television channels that had been banned by the Ukrainian authorities earlier that year, adopted a negative framing of the visit. Consistent themes in these two newspapers’ articles were claims that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church with ties to the Moscow Patriarchate was the only canonical church, that the visit would exacerbate the persecution of that church’s believers and the occupation of their church buildings, and that there were mass demonstrations against the visit. The other newspapers in the material had a more positive framing, and described Bartholomew, his visit to Ukraine, and the independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine in neutral or positive terms. In conclusion, I argue that Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has had a profound impact on religious and media pluralism in Ukraine, and therefore, the analysis represents a glimpse into a bygone era.
