Christian leaders ‘killed, tortured and disappeared’ in occupied Ukraine

Christian leaders are being “killed, tortured and disappeared” in parts of Ukraine which are occupied by Russia, a Christian religious freedom charity has said. 

Paul Robinson, CEO of Release International, said, “As President Putin begins his fifth term our partners describe growing pressure on the Church.” 

Partners report that in February, 59-year-old Ukrainian Orthodox priest, Stepan Podolchak, was found dead within the streets of Kalanchak, in Russian-occupied Kherson, his body showing signs of torture. 

The tragic discovery was made two days after he was seized and hauled away by what’s believed to have been operatives belonging to the Russian Interior Ministry’s Centre for Countering Extremism.

Forum 18 reports that prior to his abduction and murder, he had resisted pressure to depart the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and join the Moscow Patriarchate. 

“Increasingly, denominations aside from President Putin’s Russian Orthodox are being considered extremists,” said Release International. 

Podolchak just isn’t the one Christian to have suffered this fate after Anatoly Prokopchuk, a Pentecostal deacon, and his 19-year-old son son Aleksandr, were kidnapped, mutilated and shot in Kherson last November. 

According to Forum 18, “Russian occupation forces have also kidnapped, tortured, and killed other Ukrainian religious leaders because the Russian invasion.”

Release reports that others have disappeared or been deported to Russia, some after refusing to just accept Russian citizenship.

Yet there are also signs of hope, with people filling churches in Kherson and showing a hunger for the Gospel. 

“In the face of fear, insecurity and oppression, hunger for the gospel is growing. We hear reports of churches packed to overflowing and lots of giving their lives to Christ,” said Robinson. 

An associate of Release International said: “People flock to the word of God and convert to Christ, in whom they find their only hope within the conflagration of war.”

Release International is working to support Christians who’ve remained inside Ukraine and people who have sought safety elsewhere.

Robinson continued, “In our work with persecuted Christians we discover again and again that oppression concentrates the mind and cause people to think deeply concerning the meaning of their lives,’ says Paul Robinson of Release International.

“When all the pieces else is stripped away, people withstand the really vital questions: “Why am I here? And what’s my purpose?”

“While persecution is a terrible thing, we discover that God is powerfully present to revive hope and meaning. Our partners are working in Ukraine to serve a Church which is being refined by fire – and where the gospel is preached, that Church is growing.”