The horrific human rights violations of evangelical Christians by Russian authorities illegally occupying Ukrainian territory were recorded in a report released earlier this year.
According to a February report from Mission Eurasia, “Faith Under the Fear of Russia: An Analysis of the Religious Situation in Ukraine,” from 2022 to 2024, at least 47 Ukrainian Christian leaders from various denominations were “killed as a result of a full-scale Russian attack.”
“The causes of the deaths of Ukrainian religious leaders were diverse: in a doross lesson depicting torture by Russian soldiers, detention or imprisonment in inhumane circumstances, targeted shootings of civilians by Russian soldiers, indiscriminate bombardment of civilian infrastructure using artillery, missiles or weapons of mass destruction, and explosive Doros lessons, “using missiles or weapons of mass destruction.”
Data for the death of Christian leaders due to torture in Russian prisons “and inhumane treatment,” the report says. Analysis by US-based nonprofit Mission Eurasia did not include the death of a clergyman who was mobilizing or volunteering to protect the country by joining the Ukrainian military.
Recorded deaths do not include “active followers who served in churches and faith-based communities without being appointed clergy.”
The report included 70 in-person interviews with witnesses from all Christian denominations in Ukraine between August 2023 and December 2024.
Evangelical Christians are exposed to threats, surveillance, defamation and “brutal violence” especially by Russian occupyers, the report said.
“They are victims of Kremlin propaganda and their so-called “desatanization” campaigns, disproportionately targeting Protestant churches by labeling Protestant churches as “sectarians,” “western agents,” or “extremists,” the report says.
It compared the current treatment of evangelicals by the Russian Federation and the previous treatment of the Soviet Union.
“Like in the Soviet era, occupational authorities forcefully integrate believers from different sects under the control of state-recognized leaders who are loyal to Russia into a single church, effectively restraining sectarian diversity and freedom of worship.” “The Russian army frequently raids places of worship during worship, turning church gatherings into places for “filtering.” This is a practice used to identify and intimidate people who oppose the occupation, or a practice that does not want to accept Russian citizenship. ”
After arriving Crimean land in 2014, it explained the background of the Russian invasion on February 23, 2022, and later accused by the United Nations of “violation of Ukrainian territorial integrity and sovereignty,” the report pointed to a sense of pluralistic union between the sects of Ukrainian churches before the invasion. It compared the warm relations between Ukrainian churches with the militaristic call by the Russian Orthodox Church, led by Moscow’s patriarch Kirill.
“Some Russian Muslims, Protestants and other religious leaders have expressed similar views,” the report added.
According to the report, “Chaubinistic “Russian World” ideology” promoted invasion, denying Ukrainian sovereignty as a nation, and promoting ethnic and cultural hegemony in Russia.
“Supported by the propaganda of the state and extensive social support in Russia, this ideology has promoted war crimes against Ukrainian people, including illegal imprisonment, torture, rape, mass induction of children to Russia, and targeted killings of civilians, including at least 47 Ukrainian religious leaders,” he said. “Russia continues to violate international humanitarian law by using missiles and drones to systematically attack civil infrastructure such as hospitals, schools, energy facilities and places of worship.”
He said at least 650 religious sites had been damaged or destroyed.
Russian occupation forces in southern Ukraine also systematically targeted all Christian denominations within the territory and pressured them to “cooperate or eliminate in the case of rejection.”
Most church activities, such as community outreach efforts and humanitarian assistance, were banned by occupational authorities by the second half of 2022, after the early stages of major invasions. Religious services were also prohibited, and new churches and churches involved in volunteer activities had to register with Russian authorities.
The crackdown led to all independent faith communities in the occupied Zaporisia and Herson regions that were closed by mid-2023, with the exception of “parishes that are forced to line up with the Russian Orthodox Church.”
The executive summary of the report focused on the extensive confiscation and reuse of religious property.
“Church buildings, property, and even prayer civilian houses were seized by the Russian army, declared “unclaimed” and plundered, destroyed or reused for use by the occupying regime.”
Christians who have not escaped Russian invasions of Ukraine suffer from a systematic violation of their religious freedom and civil liberties. The report said it pressured Russian passports and Russian occupyers against these Ukrainians to force the faith community to re-register under Russian law or to lose both legal status and property rights.
“Ukrainian churches and faith-based communities face eradication of more Ukrainian churches and faith-based communities,” the report noted “the militarization of children and the promotion of hatred and hatred towards non-Russian risks that will promote future waves of Russian armed attacks, regardless of temporary suspension or peace agreements.”
Church leaders were killed
On January 22, 2024, the Rev. Mikola Fomin of the UOC was killed amidst church leaders who were killed during Russian artillery fire in the village of Kurakivka in the Donetsk region.
Russian soldiers tortured and shot OCU priest Rev. Stepan Podolchak in the village of Karanchak in the Carson area on February 15, 2024. Two days ago, they had lured him out of his house with his barefoot and placed a bag on his head.
Rev. Yuriy Klymko, pastor and pastor of CEF Church, Church of Jesus Christ, Kupiansk city, Kharkiv area, was killed on February 28, 2024.
On April 10, 2024, Vitaliy Taranenko, Choir Minister of the Resurrected Baptist Church (ECB), was killed during a Russian missile attack in the city of Chornomorsk in the Odesa region.
Rev. Mykola Tatiashvili, pastor of God’s CEF Church, was killed on August 13, 2023 at his home in Stanislav village in the Kherson area. That day, the Russian Army fired a village in the Kherson area, claiming at least seven lives.
Rev. Mikola Palaniuk, president and dean of Birozerka district, was murdered on June 13, 2023. He was distributing humanitarian assistance on the church’s basis to those affected by the flood caused by the destruction of the Kakhovka hydropower plant when Russian artillery fired the village from the left bank of the Dnipro River.
Among the victims killed before 2023 was Pastor Maxim Kozachina, a priest of the Orthodox Church (OCU), who was pulled to a checkpoint near Ivankiv village in the Kiev region on February 26, 2022.
It also records the death of Oleksandr Kysliuk, a professor at the Kiev Academy of Orthodox Theology at OCU. On March 5, 2022, Russian soldiers shot him dead in their yard in Arpin, the Kiev region. That same day, Russian soldiers shot and killed Ok priest Rostislav Dudarenko at a checkpoint in his hometown of Yasnohoroka in the Baishav community in the Fastiv district of Kiev region.
A Russian soldier was executed on March 6, 2022 for shooting and death Vitaliy Vynohradov, the dean of Kiev Slav Evangelical Seminary in Bucha, Kiev region. Hundreds of other locals were also “brutally murdered.”
In Bucha, the body of Ihol Holodetsky, pastor of the Ukrainian Evangelical Christian Missionary Church Association, was found in the tomb of the masses. The date has not been disclosed.
On September 1, 2022, during artillery fire in the city of Barakuria in the Kharkiv region, Andriy Klyauzer, pastor of the CEF’s Ukrainian Church, was killed while distributing food to local residents.
Russian soldiers were tortured in the city of Kakhovka in the Herson area. Shortly after their abduction, their bodies held signs of torture on November 22, 2022.
