Religious freedom is under threat in Ukraine. Some query by whom?
A Ukrainian delegation to last week’s International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, DC, had a transparent answer: Russia. Led by Sergey Rakhuba, president of Mission Eurasia, it presented “Faith Under Fire,” a December report detailing the crimes of war in eastern Ukraine and elsewhere.
“Faith communities are under incredible pressure in occupied territories,” he told CT. “The ideology of the Russian world is to completely monopolize religion.”
International lawyer Robert Amsterdam, nonetheless, warned that Ukraine was attempting the identical control over one half of its divided Orthodox church.
Initial laws passed by the Ukrainian parliament in October, he said, threatened to “ban” the historic Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), the branch canonically linked to the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) patriarchate in Moscow. In response, Amsterdam sent a 25-page dossier to the US, UK, and European Union heads of state on the UOC’s behalf.
“There is now a really serious query mark over whether Ukraine can meet its commitments to human rights and the rule of law,” the dossier stated. “This could have dire ramifications for Ukraine’s entry into the European Union and its place within the Western world.”
The authors of each reports share a standard enemy.
Mykhailo Brytsyn, the lead creator of the Mission Eurasia report, is a Ukrainian pastor who was previously arrested by the Russians during a worship service in Melitopol, occupied by Russia since March 2022. He was later exiled, and the military seized his church and turned it right into a military base. Amsterdam, a Canadian lawyer with offices in DC and London, was also previously arrested in Moscow for defending Russian dissidents and subsequently banned from the country.
The United Nations is monitoring each Russia and Ukraine.
At a November meeting of the body’s security council, the UN assistant secretary general for human rights noted the yet-to-be finalized law in Ukraine and chided the country for failing to properly investigate 10 documented cases of violence at houses of worship, instigated by the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) against the Moscow-linked UOC.
The OCU was granted autocephaly—national independence—by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople in 2019, supported by the United States under the principle of spiritual freedom. But the move was rejected by the ROC, which continued in ecclesial jurisdiction over the UOC.
The UN official, Ilze Brands Kehris, continued her testimony to state that Russia is violating international norms by applying its own law in occupied territory, detailing restrictions on minority believers.
Rakhuba noted that there are lots of such restrictions.
“This war will not be just territorial, it’s ideological,” he said. “Religious freedom is missing from Russian terminology.”
Image: Ukraine Institute for Religious Freedom
Citing an idea called Russki Miir—“Russian World”—Rakhuba, a Ukrainian who previously worked with the Union of Evangelical Christian Baptists within the Soviet Union, contended that the ROC works hand-in-hand with the Kremlin to marginalize other Christian denominations. Since the invasion, the Russian military authority within the occupied Donbas region has steadily replicated that formula.
Rakhuba described three phases.
In the primary, from the January 2022 invasion until April of that yr, the Russian army ignored churches in eastern Ukraine because it targeting strategic gains. Phase two, which stretched until October, witnessed several “friendly conversations” between officials and the clerics summoned to report. Light threats were made right now, with inducements offered for cooperation.
Phase three, ongoing since then, has involved the outright seizing of churches.
Protecting the believers still there, the Mission Eurasia report—already outdated in its numbers because the war continues—shielded the names of denominations struggling to keep up their spiritual witness. For one, only 4 of 48 churches were still operational. In a second, just one of 20. And a 3rd now not conducted services in any of its 16 locations.
The report described canceled registrations, personal surveillance, and the kidnapping of spiritual leaders. It cited one other report that counted 12 clerics expelled from the region, one other 8 taken prisoner, and 5 killed.
Image: Ukraine Institute for Religious Freedom
But it will not be just religious minorities. OCU priests have been forced to hitch the ROC. And even some within the Moscow-affiliated UOC have been harassed for refusing to wish for Russian victory.
In May 2022, the UOC announced it was cutting ties with Moscow. Hundreds of Ukrainian priests signed an open letter calling for Patriarch Kirill, the top of the ROC, to face a spiritual tribunal. The leader of the UOC, Metropolitan Onufriy, called Kirill a fellow primate reasonably than his religious superior, and stopped mentioning Kirill’s name in liturgical prayer. But reporting—and Ukrainian testimony—stated that not all dioceses have followed suit.
“Coming out of the Soviet period, freedom became a worth—a right, not permission,” said Rakhuba. “Ukrainians understand this, however it will not be yet a part of our DNA.”
The OCU recognizes religious liberty, he continued, but many senior priests within the UOC don’t. Some have been openly collaborating with Russia, and Onufriy deposed three top bishops, two of whom fled to Russia. Between February 2022 and October 2023, Ukraine opened 68 criminal proceedings against UOC representatives and located alleged evidence of pro-Russia sentiment on the Eleventh-century Kyiv–Pechersk Lavra complex, referred to as the Monastery of the Caves.
The long-term UOC lease to the historical site has not been renewed.
Amsterdam stated that lots of the charges against UOC priests are spurious. As many monks refuse to vacate the Lavra, he cites the case of Metropolitan Pavel, detained without bail for allegedly “offending the religious feelings of Ukrainians.”
But Rakhuba’s report shows they’ve much to be offended at. Alongside violations against individuals and denominations, at the least 630 church structures have been damaged or destroyed as of December 1, 2023, in keeping with data from the Institute for Religious Freedom in Kyiv. Occupied Donetsk (146) and Luhansk (83) are the cities with the very best variety of affected churches, followed by now-liberated Kherson (78) after which Kyiv (73). The UOC—Ukraine’s largest church—has suffered essentially the most with 187 damaged churches, while the OCU counts 59.
Despite their minority status, evangelicals represent about one-third of the overall with 206 cases. Pentecostals (94) and Baptists (60) have essentially the most affected churches; Jehovah’s Witnesses have an extra 110. Furthermore, the theological libraries of Tavriski Christian Institute and Mission Eurasia were deliberately destroyed.
Image: Ukraine Institute for Religious Freedom
Such information could also be crucial to keeping robust American support for the war, stated Razom, a Ukrainian-American human rights organization. Only 28 percent of US evangelicals supported congressional authorization of additional funding for Ukraine last October, in comparison with 44 percent of all Americans, in keeping with a Razom survey. But when presented “factual details about Russians persecuting Ukrainian believers,” 55 percent of evangelicals said they’d be more more likely to approve.
Many Ukrainian Orthodox have made their alternative clear: 589 communities have transferred from the UOC to the OCU. But of the remaining 8,193 parishes, the overwhelming majority haven’t officially indicated their separation from Moscow.
Why might or not it’s required?
The current draft of the law passed by the Ukrainian parliament prohibits the activities of spiritual organizations which might be “affiliated with the centers of influence” in an enemy state. Ukraine stated that it will not be a ban and that every local entity might be subject to judicial investigation. Revisions may follow, but, alongside the UN, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom expressed “serious concern” that it would develop into a ban in practice.
But Rakhuba brought many delegates to DC to say otherwise.
“We see the UOC because the ideological—I won’t even say spiritual—arm of the ROC in Ukraine,” he said. “Putin’s propaganda has been spreading within the West.”
Including the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights and the top of the State Service for Ethnic Affairs and Freedom of Conscience, delegation representatives from the Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox bodies of Ukraine are keeping concentrate on the clear offenses of the Russian Federation.
The UOC, nonetheless, was not invited.
It was not the primary time. Another Ukrainian interfaith delegation visited the US in October, but a senior UOC metropolitan stated that his church was excluded.
Rakhuba doesn’t consider they’re sincere of their denunciation of the war and their independence from the ROC. And having a representative from their church within the delegation would disturb his colleagues—as each entity witnesses to the violations committed by the UOC mother church. Kirill, for instance, has blessed the war and promised forgiveness of sin to martyred soldiers.
In December, Ukraine placed the Russian patriarch on its wanted list for abetting the conflict.
The next month, the interdenominational Ukrainian Christian Churches (UCC) issued a press release condemning Kirill and ROC Russki Miir ideology. It also expressed support for the position of the interreligious Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (UCCRO) in its worldwide appeal for Christians to pressure their affiliated denominations in Russia against their claims of genocide.
The UOC was not amongst its 11 signatories.
But it’s considered one of the 16 member bodies of the UCCRO—which only speaks in consensus. Vyacheslav Horpynchuk, bishop of the Ukrainian Lutheran Church, is a member in each groups and doesn’t know if the UOC was invited to sign the UCC statement. Yet it might not surprise him in the event that they weren’t.
“The UOC must work hard to regain the boldness of other Christian leaders,” he said. “If they called Russia to repentance, they’d be welcome amongst us.”
Horpynchuk said the UCCRO meets usually, normally in person, every three months. Formed in 1996 to maintain interfaith peace after the autumn of the Soviet Union, it also includes representatives of Ukraine’s Muslims and Jews. Usually the group’s statements pertain to social issues or pending religion-related laws, but because the Russian invasion, all members, he said, were clear in condemning the attack.
But there have been differences in terminology. The UOC spoke of “civil conflict” and “misunderstandings,” while the opposite member denominations called it a war. This has disturbed some, Horpynchuk said. Christians should speak clearly against sin.
Yet because the war continued, the Moscow-linked body has increasingly brought the council pleas against government discrimination against it. Nonetheless, officially the UOC has lent its support for statements against Russki Miir because the ideology of a “terrorist state” while calling for a world tribunal to prosecute leading officials.
But with the reports of arrests of UOC clerics and of collaboration with Russia within the occupied territories, Horpynchuk thinks the Lavra lease cancellation and the Ukrainian parliament laws to sever Kremlin relations are “fair.” And to a level, the disfavor against the UOC is ironic; for years, many in UOC churches have called OCU members “schismatics.”
Unfortunately, the UOC’s political struggle to maintain faith with each Moscow and Ukraine has soiled relations, whilst they keep formal UCCRO unity.
“The Lord calls us to like, even when it is difficult with our brothers in fellowship with Russia,” said Horpynchuk. “But I pray that love spreads throughout Ukraine, for with this we’ll overcome the enemy.”
One cleric, nonetheless, is not any longer in fellowship.
Originally within the UOC, Ukrainian priest Cyril Hovorun was transferred by then-Metropolitan Kirill to the ROC in 2009. Since the war, he has been a critic of Russia and was formally defrocked in December for celebrating Communion with Constantinople-aligned churches—though he believes the actual reason is political.
As for his formative church, he has mixed feelings.
“The UOC was sincere in distancing from Moscow but not in cutting off relations completely,” said Hovorun. “Its decisions regarding Moscow are easily reversible.”
Analysts have noted that the May 2022 decision may not have actually broken ties with the ROC, because the UOC’s Onufriy had previously appealed for independence of administration, granted by the Moscow patriarchate in 1990 prior to Ukraine’s independence. Hovorun emphasized that there was no canonical judgment to separate—which the UOC cannot unilaterally issue anyway.
Meanwhile, he said that certain distinguished UOC bishops proceed to wish for Kirill, while few are critical concerning the ROC taking on UOC churches in occupied territory—as they’re the identical church.
“Speaking theologically, in Ukraine there’s one church with two jurisdictions,” Hovorun said. “The UOC is effectively a bunch of dioceses of the Russian church in Ukraine. How it imagines itself is something else.”
The UOC didn’t reply to a request for comment.
At the identical time, Hovorun sees some within the Ukrainian government pushing to merge the UOC into the OCU. As for the religious freedom implications of the law—it remains to be pending its final version. Observers could have to attend and see.
But in keeping with Ukrainian churches, per the UCCRO, the offenses of Russia are obvious. And in support of his nation, Rakhuba is keen to present his findings.
“People are terrified that if Russia takes over Ukraine,” he said, “the very first thing they may do is intimidate people of religion.”
