Repression against all religious minorities, like in Soviet times, has returned to Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia. Ukrainian evangelical churches, which Russian propaganda labels as “American agents,” “sectarians,” or “extremists,” especially suffer from persecution by the occupation authorities.
The delegation of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (AUCCRO) testified to this during meetings in the US capital, reports the Christian Megaportal inVictory with reference to the AUCCRO website.
The morning of the October 30 panel discussion at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington began for Ukrainian religious leaders with a roundtable discussion with the participation of American experts and opinion leaders.
The head of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Ukraine, Chairman of the AUCCRO Stanislav Nosov reported that 27 Adventist houses of worship were damaged as a result of the Russian invasion, of which 6 were completely destroyed. He also announced open desecration of religious shrines. As an example, in the occupied Gorlovka Donetsk region, Russian authorities turned an Adventist meeting house into a funeral home, where coffins were placed in the middle of the worship hall for sale.
At the same time, the Senior Bishop of the Ukrainian Church of Christians of the Evangelical Faith, Anatoly Kozachok, reported that the Russian military completely destroyed 7 houses of worship of Pentecostal Christians. Another 63 houses of worship were damaged by Russian shelling or targeted looting.
“It is obvious to us that Russia seeks to destroy Ukrainians as a whole as a nation, as the people of Ukraine, as well as to destroy any idea of an independent Ukrainian state. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, democracy began to flourish in Ukraine, true religious freedom emerged, and religious pluralism took hold. However, now Russia seeks to destroy all this and establishes the ideology of the “Russian World” in the occupied territories of Ukraine, which provides for the complete destruction of Ukrainian identity and brutal repressions against all disloyal to the occupiers and all religious minorities,” said the Chief Rabbi of Kiev and Ukraine Yakov Dov Bleich.
During a panel discussion at the Institute of Peace, Metropolitan of Philadelphia of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Boris Gudziak noted that every time the Russian state occupies the territory of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church loses its legal status and is persecuted. “This is how it was under Empress Catherine, in the 19th century, in the 20th century, when the Church was liquidated, this is what is happening now. Ukrainian Churches and religious organizations know that the Russian occupation will limit or even destroy our religious freedom.” He noted that there are almost no active Catholic priests left in the occupied territories, be they of the Eastern or Western rite.
Ukrainian religious leaders took part in a separate meeting on this issue at the US State Department, where they met with Rashad Hussein, US Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom. Delegates of the AUCCRO testified that a high level of religious freedom remains in Ukraine and not a single church has been closed. But the Russian authorities use religion as a propaganda tool and force religious communities to cooperate with the FSB (formerly the KGB), including in the occupied territories.
“The situation in Russia is even worse than it was during the Soviet Union. If the communist government was separated from the church because of its atheistic ideology, now the Kremlin has total control over all churches and religious organizations in Russia and uses them to promote war against Ukraine. Therefore, Russian religious figures who are accomplices in the Kremlin’s crimes should not be perceived only as clergy, but it is advisable to impose sanctions on them as propagandists carrying out the Kremlin’s order2, emphasized Metropolitan Evstratiy (Zorya), a representative of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.”
On the same day, Ukrainian religious leaders met with experts from the Heritage Foundation, a US strategic research institute. It was about the role of the religious community of Ukraine in defending the values of democracy, the rule of law, freedom of religion, family principles and other conservative values.
A separate meeting was also held with the leadership of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). As a result, an agreement was reached to expand partnerships with religious communities in Ukraine to provide humanitarian assistance and implement educational projects in support of the people of Ukraine suffering from Russian aggression.
A delegation of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations arrived in the USA consisting of representatives of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Ukrainian Church of Christians of the Evangelical Faith, Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine, Seventh-day Adventist Church in Ukraine, Ukrainian Evangelical Church, Union of Jewish Religious Organizations, Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Ukraine and Ukrainian Bible Society, as well as leader of the Institute for Religious Freedom.
After the events in Washington, Ukrainian religious leaders will visit Houston, Texas, where they will hold a series of meetings with local religious leaders, politicians and opinion leaders. The visit of the AUCCRO delegation to the United States is supported by the American RAZOM Foundation.
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