At least 494 church buildings have been destroyed, vandalized, looted, and occupied as Russian military bases in Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion. Institute for Religious Freedom (Irf Ukraine), a human rights NGO founded in Kyiv in 2001, prepared a report on the effects of the war on Ukrainian religious communities, which was published by the World Council of Churches on February 22.
Most churches, mosques and synagogues were destroyed in the occupied Donetsk (at least 120) and Luhansk (over 70) regions. The level of destruction is also high in the Kyiv region (70), where the Ukrainians fought desperate battles to defend the capital, as well as in the Kherson and Kharkiv regions: more than 50 religious buildings were destroyed in both regions.
Although the most severely affected areas are located in the eastern regions of the country, there are damaged religious buildings throughout Ukraine, from Kherson in the south to Chernihiv in the north. Russian airstrikes against civilian targets, including drone attacks, have affected almost all regions of Ukraine and continue to this day.
Irf Ukraine has also documented several cases of church buildings being seized in Ukraine, which were then used as Russian military bases or to hide weapons stockpiles of Russian troops. The organization also documented the "targeted attacks against religious leaders and believers by the Russian military and intelligence services, mainly in the occupied territories of Ukraine," according to the World Council of Churches' statement.
"The faithful and the clergy were often targeted by the Russian occupation authorities because they spoke Ukrainian, belonged to a different denomination, or because they expressed their Ukrainian identity in any other way."
All religions and all denominations are involved in the attacks. Of the buildings, 30 belong to different Protestant communities, 21 to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), 5 to the Roman Catholic Church, 4 to the Greek Catholic Church and 95 to the Jehovah's Witness denomination.
The World Council of Churches points out that 48 percent of the Christian church buildings completely or partially destroyed during the Russian attacks - 142 sites - belong to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which after its meeting on May 27, 2022 declared its independence from the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church .
Source: Hungarian Courier
Photos: Agentsir
