At the Army 2023 expo of Russian military technology last week, it was not the vast Yars intercontinental missile or the captured western armoured vehicles that stole the show but an inflatable church.
The mobile chapel, or military field temple, is meant to serve the spiritual needs of Russian soldiers in the red zone at the front in Ukraine. It includes hanging space for icons, the sacred pictures used for devotional purposes in the Orthodox tradition.
“One can unfold it, swiftly inflate it, conduct a service and leave,” Boris Grishin, a Russian Orthodox priest, told the state news agency RIA Novosti. “If there are two people, you can hang all the icons, unfold and pump it up in under ten minutes.” The vehicle carrying the
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