Report: Russia has attacked at least 270 religious sites in Ukraine

 By Tom Strode - Posted at Baptist Press:

Published November 14, 2022

NASHVILLE (BP) – Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine has included increased violence against religious leaders and widespread attacks on religious sites, according to a recently issued report.

The Ukrainian-based Institute for Religious Freedom (IRF) reported at least 270 houses of worship, religious educational institutions and sacred sites such as cemeteries were either destroyed or damaged during the first five months after Russia began its assault in late February. The report covers the military aggression ordered by President Vladimir Putin through July 15 and analyzes the state of religious freedom in Crimea since Russia invaded and took over the Ukrainian region in 2014.

Russia’s attacks on religious liberty “have become crueler” since its Feb. 24 invasion that has included the subsequent annexation of eastern regions of Ukraine, the report said.

“If previously priests [in] the occupied territories only received death threats, now religious leaders are tortured and killed – again, but on a scale far worse than in 2014,” according to the report.

“If previously Russian occupational authorities expelled Ukrainian believers from their churches and prayer houses, now Russia is destroying the spiritual heritage of Ukraine with missile attacks, shelling, and looting of religious buildings without justification by military necessity.”

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See also:

•  The Wartime Prayers of Ukraine’s Evangelicals | Christianity Today