If you really want to pretend that religion doesn’t play a part in this conflict, I don’t really see how that would help anyone… It just makes certain behaviour unexplainable for you and, hence, as long as you are in denial of this you won’t be in a position to think of a realistic path forward. Why would Trump have to buy off Malaysia to support his ultimatum and not, say, Brazil?

Regarding Ukraine, I don’t think that religion is a(n important) driver there. But I suggest you look up what happened within the orthodox christian church in parallel. Or how the church played a role in the recent elections in Moldova and the conflict over Transnistria.

And in the transition of finding your last sentences the most revealing: what religion do you believe those zero-year-olds were following?