“We, as martyrs, will go to heaven. They will simply die”
Vladimir Putin, 18 October 2018
It is rarely reported in the international press, but the Russian war in Ukraine is also a religious war.
As Putin and the current Russian government draw their inspiration from the prehistoric and medieval concepts of the holiness of their nation and of the purity of their way of life — the “Russian world”, or Ruscism, it is obvious that there is no place for freedom of religion in Russia.
Yes, they do have Potemkin religious organizations of Russian Christian Orthodox and Russian Catholics, and even Muslim and Buddhist and Jewish organizations. But you can only be a priest or a follower of a certain religion in Russia if you support and agree with every action of the Russian government.
There are dozens of stories of the Russian Orthodox priests and Jewish leaders who condemned, or simply refused to support, the Russian killing of Ukrainians. All of them were either stripped of their positions or had to flee the country or face prison terms.
Jehovah's Witnesses were criminally persecuted for practicing their faith since 2015 and were banned altogether in 2017. Those who disagreed went to prison.
You can read more on the religious persecution in Russia in this report from 2023: Religious Repression in Putin’s Russia.
Unlike Russia, Ukraine has maintained real religious freedom after it regained its independence in 1991. Ukrainian religious life has been — and is — much more diverse than the Russian one, with Ukraine having at some moment in the 2000s three major Orthodox churches compared with just one in Russia.
Protestants in Ukraine number about 600,000 to 700,000, about 2% of the total population. Nearly all traditional Protestant denominations are represented in the country. According to Christianity Today magazine, Ukraine has become not just the "Bible Belt" of Eastern Europe, but a "hub of evangelical church life, education, and missions".
However, it all changed with the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014.
Russian government understands that it will be only able to brainwash and control the population of the occupied territories when the Ukrainian spiritual leaders agree to approve and praise the Russian war in Ukraine and the Russian policy on the occupied Ukrainian territories.
Accordingly, immediately after capturing a Ukrainian city, Russian officials begin repressions against Ukrainian religious leaders and their faithful. Ukrainian Christian leaders have been forced to leave Crimea immediately after its occupation by Russia in 2014. A family of Pentecostals was one of the first victims of the Russian-sponsored gangs in Donbas back in 2014.
As of today, Russia has eliminated all religious organizations on the 2014 occupied territories that refused to pledge religious allegiance and support to the Russian government.
The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine only proved more of the same: Russia is leading a war against Ukrainian Christians, with a special focus on non-Orthodox churches, which usually means Evangelical and other Protestant churches.
Russian behavior in Ukraine is much like the Islamic State’s war in the Middle East, famous for the persecution of religious minorities that they considered “not Muslim enough”.
Steven Moore, Former House Leadership Chief of Staff, is constantly reporting on the Russian persecution of the Ukrainian Christians, and, particularly, Evangelical Christians.
In his most recent article, he provides a list of graphic violence that Russian forces apply to the Ukrainian priests:
“Evangelical ministers report being tortured by Russians with electricity to their genitals.
One minister reports being tortured with an electrical taser while a Russian Orthodox priest tried to cast demons out of him for being an Evangelical Christian.
Evangelical pastors from occupied Melitopol report that every Protestant church in their city has been closed. As one example, the Russians cut down the cross from the Melitopol Christian Church and replaced it with a Russian flag and turned the church into the Russian Ministry of Culture.
The Grace Baptist Church in Melitopol has video of a Russian soldier in full combat gear taking the stage from the worship team and telling believers to stay in their seats so the Russians can search their phones and fingerprint them”.
These are the Russian atrocities against Ukrainian Christians that were made public by those who survived or were able to otherwise send the message about their fate. For every known and recorded Russian crime, there are ten Russian crimes that are unknown, as the victims and witnesses are dead or in prison without access to the outer world.
What Russia does in Ukraine is a religious war, aimed at the extermination of every Christian who practices any version of Christianity other than the Gospel of Putin.
If you believe in the right of a person to choose his or her faith, to pray to God in his or her language, to have their priests appointed by the rules of their faith and not by the government - help Ukraine win.
Help Ukraine win to protect the lives of Ukrainian Christians.
Help Ukraine win to restore the freedom of religion in the Ukrainian lands occupied by Russia.