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Ukraine: Christians in “Dire” Situation Amid Russian Invasion

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Religious communities in Ukraine are in an increasingly “dire” situation as invading Russian forces, and authorities harass, blackmail, and threaten violence against ministers and churchgoers, raid, loot, and destroy worship centers, and gather personal data on believers to put them under surveillance, Mission Eurasia reports.

Based in the US, the Mission Eurasia educational charity was established to provide “effective assistance to religious organizations and communities in overcoming the repercussions of the communist era while responding to modern challenges in post-Soviet countries from the position of a Christian worldview.” Now, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine well into its third year, Mission Eurasia has published “Faith Under Fire: Navigating Religious Freedom Amidst the War in Ukraine,” a detailed study of the devastation being wreaked on Ukrainian religious communities.

“Lare-scale missile and suicide drone strikes on civilian infrastructure, which Russia carries out systematically to this day, have caused destruction and damage to hundreds of religious structures all over Ukraine,” Mission Eurasia explains among the key findings of its study. “The situation of believers in the regions Russia occupied in the first weeks of the invasion, and which it still controls, is especially difficult. Almost all religious communities are facing a repressive policy which the Kremlin enforces not only in Russia itself but also in the territories of Ukraine under its control.”

In a stark warning to the international community about the crisis facing Ukrainian religious communities, Mission Eurasia attests in its report: “Religious activity in Ukrainian territories controlled by Russia has become very dangerous, even in private households. The persecution and repression of ministers are systemic in nature and is trending upwards. Religious figures who still suffer persecution continue to be forced into cooperation with the occupation authorities, blackmailed through the confiscation of church buildings, and threatened with violence against them and their family members. The frequency of documented cases of the use of methods of psychological and physical violence is growing.”

At the top of a detailed list of recommendations on the way forward, Mission Eurasia urges the international community to “bring the leadership of the Russian Federation, representatives of occupation administrations, and direct executors to justice for the war crimes perpetrated against religious figures, and the systematic oppression of religious minorities on Ukrainian territories controlled by the Russian military.”