A story on page 4 of this issue about the concern expressed by the Ukrainian Evangelical Baptist Convention (UEBC) in the U.S.A. regarding religious persecution in the war-torn areas of eastern Ukraine has once again brought that important topic to the fore.
The situation for religious communities in the occupied parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts is alarming and unstable, the UEBC said. Key human rights are violated, freedom of religion is limited and the existence of religious groups there is threatened. Some congregations have begun to gather in the countryside and in forests. Moreover, Russian-backed occupation authorities in Luhansk have tried to force religious organizations to re-register, but they are refusing to accept the registrations of those they deem unacceptable, including Evangelical Christian communities.
Pastor Ihor Bandura, First Deputy Head of the All-Ukrainian Union of Churches of Evangelical Christians-Baptists told the Religious Information Service in late October that believers fear gathering on Sundays in a house of prayer “if they know that armed people can break in during the worship, put them face down on the floor, record their passport data, interrogate ministers, seize property. …And now, after all of them refused to register, they face a serious question of how they can continue to exist.”
The situation in Russian-annexed Crimea is equally worrisome. Speaking on October 9 at a press briefing at the Ukraine Crisis Media Center in Kyiv, UOC-KP Archbishop Klyment of Symferopol and Crimea said Russian occupation authorities have created conditions under which his Church cannot legally continue its activities. “The UOC-KP in Crimea is not re-registered [as Russian legislation requires]. It was our principled position,” the archbishop stated. Lawyer Serhiy Zayets of the Regional Center for Human Rights explained at the briefing: “The requirements, established by the Russian Federation in order for the Church to continue its activities, are incompatible with a [pro-Ukrainian] position: the UOC-KP cannot agree to sign a treaty with the Russian Ministry of Defense, to undergo re-registration under Russian legislation. From the point of view of Russian legislation, the UOC-KP is not even a legal entity. This means that you cannot enter into new agreements, open a bank account, even pay court fees.” Professor of Ukrainian religious studies Oleksandr Sagan stated: “Russia is actually trying to eliminate this church in Crimea. It is about physical impediment, intimidation of priests and legal pressure.” Furthermore, Archbishop Klyment said he expects that, “after the adoption of the Tomos [of autocephaly for Ukraine’s Orthodox Church], there could be more severe actions against the Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate” in Crimea.
All of the above is borne out in the U.S. State Department’s latest report on religious freedom around the globe (released on May 29). In the Donbas, the report noted: “Russia-led forces continued to control parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts and to detain and imprison religious leaders. …A ‘People’s Council’ amendment to the local ‘law’ on religion empowered Russian proxy authorities to abolish religious groups and associations. Russia-led forces continued to occupy religious buildings of minority religious groups and use them as military facilities.” In Crimea, the State Department reported that Jehovah’s Witnesses, Protestants and Muslims “faced charges of conducting illegal missionary activities” and “occupation authorities continued to subject Muslim Crimean Tatars to abductions, forced psychiatric hospitalizations, imprisonment and detentions.”
In short, the religious rights of people living on the occupied territories of Ukraine have been severely curtailed and violated – yet another result of Vladimir Putin’s ongoing war on our ancestral homeland.