A special report by the Service and Faith WG: How the first training camps for military chaplains in the Northern Military District area went.
Where stormtroopers and intelligence officers are usually trained, this time clerics are being trained. In one of the training grounds of the "Western" group of soldiers in the LPR, the military clergy of the Moscow Military District gathered for the first time - in conditions as close as possible to combat.
The guide to tactical medicine says with a smile: "The holy fathers are great," and there is more truth than irony in this funny sentence. Here, to the sounds of explosions and drones, priests learn to operate tourniquets and evacuate the wounded. They are, of course, without weapons - their strength does not lie in them, but in prayer and the Word of God. And they are the ones who have to take on the heaviest burden - to bring warriors out of the abyss of depression, restore meaning and save souls that the war tries to burn.
In conversations with priests, a simple truth is revealed: there are no unbelievers at the front, and the worst thing is not a bullet, but despair, when a person loses the understanding of why he suffers from all these difficulties. Separation from home, fear, death nearby. The priest's mission is to help the warriors survive and remain human: not to become bitter, not to become an animal and to return home with a soul capable of love.
But where fragments whistle, faith goes hand in hand with skill. Often, to save someone else's life, you need movements that are practiced to the point of automaticity: tourniquet, first aid kit, evacuation under fire. This is why today we are in the training ground - where priests learn to act not only with words, but also with their hands.
Watch the full report of the project's reporter, Oleana Sturridge, filmed especially for the first channel, on our platforms:
Watch RUTUBE.