Source: www.forum18.org
Date: October 20, 2022
The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one's belief or religion
The right to join together and express one's belief
==============================
Following Russia's renewed invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian
and Russian-backed officials and soldiers have in newly-occupied areas
seized and tortured religious leaders, searched and sealed places of
worship to prevent their use for worship, confiscated equipment and
literature, and demanded documents. On 21 September masked Russian soldiers
seized Mariupol Baptist pastor Leonid Ponomaryov and his wife Tatyana, and
the occupation authorities are still refusing to tell local Baptists what
has happened to them.
OCCUPIED UKRAINE: Religious leaders seized, tortured; churches, mosques
closed; no news of seized Baptist couple
https://www.forum18.org/archiv
By Felix Corley, Forum 18
Following Russia's renewed invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian
and Russian-backed officials and soldiers have in newly-occupied areas
seized and tortured religious leaders, searched and sealed places of
worship to prevent their use for worship, confiscated equipment and
literature, demanded documents, and in at least one case forcibly expelled
church members from their building.
The war that followed Russia's renewed 2022 invasion of Ukraine has seen
many places of worship destroyed or damaged. Russian forces have also
seized many religious leaders of a variety of religious communities. In
most of these cases, however, it remains unclear if places of worship or
religious leaders were targeted to specifically punish the exercise of the
freedom of religion or belief (see below).
Mariupol was occupied by Russian troops and forces of the
Russian-controlled Donetsk People's Republic in May 2022. In June, Russian
officials or soldiers visited two churches in Donetsk Region, Central
Baptist Church and the Church of Christ the Saviour in Mariupol, and
forcibly expelled Protestants from their church and rehabilitation centre
in the nearby village of Manhush (see below).
On 18 October, two officers from the DPR State Security Ministry in Donetsk
and the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) in the Russian city of
Rostov-on-Don, came to the Mariupol home of Sergey Pantyukhov. He is a
leader of one of the Council of Baptist congregations in the city. The two
officers interrogated him about the ownership of the congregation's church
building, local Baptists stated. Church members asked for prayers that the
church building will not be confiscated and that another Mariupol Council
of Churches Baptist pastor Leonid Ponomaryov and his wife Tatyana will be
found (see below).
On 23 June, the Russian military brought a delegation of Moscow
Patriarchate priests to Mariupol. There they toured churches, including the
Church of Petro Mohyla of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which was granted
autocephaly (independence) by the Ecumenical Patriarch in 2019. "After the
visit of the Moscow FSB agents in cassocks, it became known that the whole
large library, collected by volunteers and benefactors, was seized and
burned in the yard," stated Petro Andriushchenko, advisor to the
(Ukrainian) Mayor of Mariupol who had to flee the city (see below).
On 21 September masked Russian soldiers came to the home of Pastor Leonid
Ponomaryov, Pastor of a Baptist Council of Churches congregation in the
newly-occupied city of Mariupol, and his wife Tatyana. Leonid and Tatyana
Ponomaryov's neighbours "distinctly heard groans and cries" as the masked
men took Leonid and Tatyana away "in an unknown direction", local Baptists
said. The Ponomaryovs were initially taken to a police station, and despite
Baptists' attempts to find out where they currently are the occupation
authorities have not given any information (see below).
The DPR State Security Ministry, the Russian-controlled police, the DPR
Interior Ministry, and the DPR Human Rights Ombudsperson's Office have all
refused to give Forum 18 any information about what has happened to Leonid
and Tatyana Ponomaryov (see below).
Russian and Russian-backed forces occupied the city of Lysychansk in
Ukraine's Luhansk Region in early July. Within days they seized the Baptist
church, the largest Protestant church in the city. Men in military dress
– who did not identify themselves – broke down the door to gain entry.
"They threw out all our possessions, including all our Christian
literature, including Bibles and educational materials," the Church's
Pastor Eduard Nosachov stated. Several of the remaining church members
gradually took the Bibles that had been thrown into a side room or into the
yard and hid them in safe places, despite the danger. The Baptist Church is
now being used by the Russian-controlled city administration. LPR
authorities used the church in late September to hold the referendum on
joining Russia (see below).
Pastor Nosachov, who left in April, noted that local churches had given aid
to local residents before the war, "but when the Russians came, residents
immediately reported on the church members and showed the authorities where
Christians lived". "Russian officials told local church members in
Lysychansk that the military administration has banned all Baptists,
Pentecostals and Adventists as extremists," Pastor Nosachov noted (see
below).
On about 14 June, Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officers raided a
Baptist church in Vasilivka and recorded the details of all those present,
a leader of Ukraine's Baptist Union told Forum 18. The officers told them
that they were closing the church as a "destructive sect" and no further
meetings would be allowed. They seized the keys to the building. The duty
officer at the Russian-controlled police insisted to Forum 18 that
"churches are open". He put the phone down when Forum 18 asked why Russian
FSB officers closed the Baptist church in the town and the Russian military
detained the pastor (see below),
Rustem Asanov, a Crimean Tatar, was Imam of the Muslim Birlik (Unity)
Mosque community in the village of Shchastlivtseve in Henichevsk District
in Ukraine's Kherson Region. He was in Henichevsk District at the time of
the renewed Russian renewed invasion of Ukraine, and was detained and
tortured in a basement by Russian occupation forces. After he was released,
Russian occupation forces came to inspect the Mosque's contents. "With them
was a Muslim apparently from the [Russian] North Caucasus, possibly from
Dagestan and possibly working for them," Asanov told Forum 18. "He was
obviously responsible for Muslims. He looked through all the books and
confiscated those that he deemed 'not correct'. He had no list of
literature with him, and was obviously identifying books [to confiscate]
from memory." Asanov estimates that the unidentified man took about one
third of the mosque's books. The Birlik (Unity) Mosque community in
Shchastlivtseve remains closed (see below).
Russian military and other occupation officials have demanded that
religious communities and leaders affiliate with Russian instead of
Ukrainian religious entities. While Imam Asanov was being held and tortured
in March by Russian forces, one man in civilian clothes insisted that he
co-operate with the occupation authorities. The man would not give his
name, but gave his call sign as "Bars" (Leopard). Imam Asanov suspects from
"Bars'" manner that he was from the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).
"Bars" also insisted that Imam Asanov cut the community's ties to the
Spiritual Administration in Kyiv and subjugate his mosque community to the
Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Crimea in the occupied Ukrainian
city of Simferopol (see below).
"Bars" also told Asanov that in time, all religious communities in
Russian-occupied territory would be required to re-register with Russia's
Justice Ministry under Russian law, Asanov told Forum 18. "Ukraine won't
exist," "Bars" told him. Imam Asanov fled from Russian-occupied territory
to Ukrainian government-held territory in late March (see below).
On 10 June, the Luhansk Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow
Patriarchate) held a Diocesan Council, which voted to reject the 27 May
changes agreed by the UOC Synod in Kyiv to distance the Church from the
Moscow Patriarchate. The Luhansk Diocese decided to stop commemorating in
the liturgy Metropolitan Onufry (Berezovsky), the UOC head, and to ask
Patriarch Kirill to take the Diocese under his direct jurisdiction. "They
put pressure on Metropolitan Panteleimon [Povoroznyuk] for a long time,"
Archimandrite Feognost Pushkov, a UOC priest in Luhansk Region, noted,
citing a cleric and a layperson from Luhansk. "He didn't make up his mind
until the last minute. He faced pressure not just from the LPR authorities,
but from its zealous supporters among the local 'influencers' in cassocks!"
(see below).
Illegal occupation and annexation
Following Russia's renewed invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian
and Russian-backed officials and soldiers have in newly-occupied areas
seized and tortured religious leaders, searched and sealed places of
worship to prevent their use for worship, confiscated equipment, demanded
documents, and in at least one case forcibly expelled church members from
their building.
Russia illegally annexed Zaporizhzhia and Kherson Regions, as well as the
Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), on
5 October, following referenda that were widely denounced by the
international community.
"The so-called 'referenda' in Ukraine were conducted in areas under Russian
occupation," United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said on
Twitter on 29 September. "They can't be called a genuine expression of the
popular will."
When Russia illegally annexed the DPR and LPR as Russian federal subjects
on 5 October, it retained the DPR and LPR names.
As of mid-October, Russia occupies about 80 percent of Ukraine's Kherson
Region and about 70 percent of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Region. (The city of
Zaporizhzhia remains under Ukrainian government control.) The DPR occupies
about 60 percent of Ukraine's Donetsk Region, while the LPR occupies about
95 percent of Ukraine's Luhansk Region.
On 19 October Russia imposed martial law
(https://www.rferl.org/a/ukrai
parts of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and
Zaporizhzhya which it has illegally occupied and annexed.
War damage or targeted attacks on freedom of religion or belief?
The war that followed Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine has seen many
places of worship destroyed or damaged. At least 270 places of worship,
religious educational institutions, and sacred sites (such as cemeteries or
memorials) were either completely destroyed or damaged between 24 February
and 15 July, the Kyiv-based Institute for Religious Freedom calculated
(https://irf.in.ua/files/publi
Russian forces have also seized many religious leaders of a variety of
religious communities. In most of these cases, however, it remains unclear
if places of worship or religious leaders were targeted to specifically
punish the exercise of the freedom of religion or belief.
Russian or Russian-backed forces have questioned individuals they have
detained about their religious communities if they find out that they are
active members of such a community. It remains unclear whether this is
because they are targeting such communities, or whether they are seeking
general information about the population.
Repression extended to newly-occupied territories
Pro-Russian rebels occupied parts of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk Regions
in April 2014 and proclaimed what they called the Donetsk People's Republic
(DPR) and the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR). Heavy fighting ensued. Until
the February 2022 renewed Russian invasion of Ukraine, the
Russian-controlled rebel administrations controlled about of Ukraine's
Donetsk and Luhansk Regions.
Freedom of religion and belief is with other human rights also severely
restricted within the Ukrainian territory of Crimea, which Russia illegally
occupied and annexed in 2014
(https://www.nhc.no/en/qa-brea
Forum 18 has documented freedom of religion and belief violations
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
imposition of Russian laws and restrictions on exercising human rights,
including freedom of religion or belief; jailing Muslim and Jehovah's
Witness Crimean prisoners of conscience; forcible closure of places of
worship; and fining people for leading meetings for worship without Russian
state permission.
Since 2014, the internationally unrecognised authorities of the Luhansk
People's Republic (https://www.forum18.org/archi
the Donetsk People's Republic
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
restrictions on all exercise of the right to freedom of religion or belief,
and other human rights.
Following Russia's renewed 2022 invasion of Ukraine, restrictions on the
exercise of the right to freedom of religion or belief and other human
rights were extended to the newly-occupied parts of the Luhansk People's
Republic and the Donetsk People's Republic, as well as other Ukrainian
territory Russia has occupied. On 19 October Russia imposed martial law
(https://www.rferl.org/a/ukrai
parts of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and
Zaporizhzhia which it has illegally occupied and annexed.
Donetsk Region: Searches, threats, expulsion from church
Mariupol, in Ukraine's Donetsk Region, was the location of bitter fighting
following Russia's renewed invasion of Ukraine, which was launched in
February 2022. The city was occupied by Russian troops and forces of the
Russian-controlled Donetsk People's Republic
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
In mid-June, Russian officials or soldiers visited three churches in
Donetsk Region - Central Baptist Church in Mariupol, the Church of Christ
the Saviour in Mariupol, and a church in Manhush. The Russian officials and
soldiers conducted searches, confiscated equipment, demanded documents, and
in one case forcibly drove out church members from their building.
On Sunday 12 June, armed men came to Mariupol's Central Baptist Church,
where nearly 100 church members were meeting for worship. The armed men
issued threats and demanded the church's registration documents. Church
members handed over the original documents, which the armed men took with
them.
On 15 or 16 June, officials came to a pastor of Mariupol's Christ the
Saviour Baptist Church, and asked to see the church's registration
documents. The minister told the officials that the leader of the church
had the documentation but was not presently in the city. The officials then
told him to come to their office to discuss the church registration. He
visited, and the officials have told him they have no further questions.
Also on 15 or 16 June, Russian military personnel forcibly expelled
Protestants from their church and rehabilitation centre in the village of
Manhush, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from Mariupol.
On 18 October two officers, from the DPR State Security Ministry in Donetsk
and the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) in the Russian city of
Rostov-on-Don, came to the Mariupol home of Sergey Pantyukhov. He is a
leader of one of the Council of Baptist congregations in the city. The two
officers interrogated him about the ownership of the congregation's church
building, local Baptists stated.
Church members asked for prayers that the church building will not be
confiscated, as well as that another Mariupol Council of Churches Baptist
pastor Leonid Ponomaryov and his wife Tatyana will be found (see below).
On 20 October, the duty officer at Mariupol City Police referred all
enquiries to the DPR Interior Ministry in Donetsk. The people who answered
the phones at the listed numbers for the Interior Ministry chancellery and
the press service insisted to Forum 18 the same day that they were
residential numbers.
Mariupol, Donetsk Region: Book-burning
On 23 June, the Russian military brought a delegation of Moscow
Patriarchate priests to Mariupol. There they toured churches, including the
Church of Petro Mohyla of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which was granted
autocephaly (independence) by the Ecumenical Patriarch in 2019.
"After the visit of the Moscow FSB agents in cassocks, it became known that
the whole large library, collected by volunteers and benefactors, was
seized and burned in the yard .. with the advice and assistance of the
priests of the Russian Orthodox Church, Petro Andriushchenko, advisor to
the (Ukrainian) Mayor of Mariupol who had to flee the city, announced on
his Telegram channel on 25 June. "The library contained several unique
copies of Ukrainian-language publications, which are now lost forever."
Andriushchenko added that the Church of Petro Mohyla, "built with the
support of the townspeople", was now threatened. "Now the occupiers are
deciding the issue of its demolition or remodelling in accordance with the
canons of the Russian Orthodox Church."
Mariupol, Donetsk Region: No news of seized pastor and wife
Ahead of the illegal 23 September Russian referenda, on 21 September masked
Russian or DPR soldiers came to the home of Pastor Leonid Ponomaryov,
Pastor of a Baptist Council of Churches congregation in the newly-occupied
city of Mariupol, and his wife Tatyana. Leonid and Tatyana Ponomaryov's
neighbours "distinctly heard groans and cries"
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
took the couple away "in an unknown direction", local Baptists said.
The Ponomaryovs were initially taken to a police station and told that they
would be held until the Russian-controlled referendum on the status of
Donetsk Region was over. However, they were not released when the
referendum concluded on 27 September.
Russian officials had initially claimed the couple had been involved in
alleged "extremist activity" and searched the Baptist Church, seizing
religious literature. The Russian officials then sealed the church
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
meetings for worship being held.
The duty officer at the DPR State Security Ministry – who did not give
his name – referred all enquiries to the police. "For kidnappings, if
that is the case, you should go to the police,"
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
October. The police officer repeated this when Forum 18 told him that armed
and masked men in army uniform took the couple.
The duty officer at the Russian-controlled police of Mariupol's Kalmiusky
(Ilichivsky) District, where the Ponomaryovs live, refused to answer any
questions (https://www.forum18.org/archi
give any information by phone," she told Forum 18 on 6 October. She refused
to put Forum 18 through to or give a phone number for Pavel Sotnikov, the
District police chief.
On 20 October, the duty officer at Mariupol City Police referred all
enquiries to the DPR Interior Ministry in Donetsk. The people who answered
the phones at the listed numbers for the Interior Ministry chancellery and
the press service insisted to Forum 18 the same day that they were
residential numbers.
Following earlier Baptist Council of Churches attempts to find out what
happened to Leonid and Tatyana Ponomaryov
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Churches sent a delegation of leaders to Donetsk. They hoped to meet acting
DPR head Denis Pushilin
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
what has happened to the couple.
"Today, a group of our brother pastors were at the reception office of the
head of the DPR," local Christians stated on 11 October. The Baptist
delegation handed over a message from the intercession department of the
International Council of Churches. Officials "received this message,
registered it, and said that this is not for the first time they have heard
this surname".
The Missing Persons Department of the DPR Human Rights Ombudsperson's
Office in Donetsk on 6 October refused to give Forum 18 any information
about what it might be doing to find out what has happened to Leonid and
Tatyana Ponomaryov.
Forum 18 then asked the DPR's Human Rights Ombudsperson Darya Morozova in
writing on 6 October about the Ponomaryovs. The 14 October written
response, signed by the head of administration Varvara Bazarova, stated
that Forum 18 was not eligible to lodge an enquiry because it is not an
individual who has lodged a complaint or a representative of one.
Luhansk Region: Lysychansk church seizures
Russian and Russian-backed forces occupied the city of Lysychansk in
Ukraine's Luhansk Region in early July. Within days they seized the Baptist
church, the largest Protestant church in the city, adapting it for their
use.
Men in military dress – who did not identify themselves – broke down
the door to gain entry, the Church's Pastor Eduard Nosachov – who had
fled the town to Ukrainian government-held territory in April because of
the fighting – told Forum 18 on 20 October. They placed Russian and LPR
flags on the front and planned to pull down the cross from the steeple.
"They threw out all our possessions, including all our Christian
literature, including Bibles and educational materials," Pastor Nosachov
added. Several of the remaining church members gradually took the Bibles
that had been thrown into a side room or into the yard and hid them in safe
places, despite the danger.
The Baptist Church is now being used by the Russian-controlled city
administration. LPR authorities used the church in late September to hold
the referendum on joining Russia.
When Pastor Nosachov left in April, he took with him the documents for the
Church. The community is nearly 30 years old and "we built the church from
nothing", he told Forum 18. He noted that local churches had given aid to
local residents before the war, "but when the Russians came, residents
immediately reported on the church members and showed the authorities where
Christians lived".
In late July, the Russian forces seized another Baptist church in a
residential district of Lysychansk – originally established by Pastor
Nosachov's congregation. Russian officials claimed it would be used as a
kindergarten, Pastor Nosachov told Forum 18.
"Russian officials told local church members in Lysychansk that the
military administration has banned all Baptists, Pentecostals and
Adventists as extremists," Pastor Nosachov noted. "We have heard about this
but not seen any written order." He pointed out that Protestant
congregations have been banned in the LPR for some years.
Russian freedom of religion or belief restrictions for Zaporizhzhia,
Kherson Regions?
Russia illegally annexed Zaporizhzhia and Kherson Regions on 5 October,
following illegal referenda that were widely denounced by the international
community. As of mid-October, Russia occupies about 80 percent of Ukraine's
Kherson Region and about 70 percent of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Region. (The
city of Zaporizhzhia remains under Ukrainian government control.)
Ever since the renewed Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and
occupation of large parts of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia and Kherson Regions,
the Russian occupation forces have sought to control all aspects of life in
the two Regions. They established Military/Civilian Administrations in the
two Regions and regional branches of ministries in July.
The Russian government established what it called temporary regional
departments of Russia's Interior Ministry in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson
Regions on 28 July. These temporary departments repeatedly stressed on
their social media accounts that "criminals" would be punished under
Russia's Criminal Code.
However, the Russian occupation administrations do not appear to have set
out any policy on for imposing Russian restrictions on the exercise of
freedom of religion and belief
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
no statements, for example, banning religious communities that are banned
in Russia (such as Jehovah's Witnesses or Muslims who study the works of
the theologian Said Nursi), or imposing Russian punishments for exercising
freedom of religion or belief. They do not appear to have established
systems to register religious communities under Russian law.
Schools in both Regions adopted Russian school curricula, with education in
Russian and often using teachers brought in from Russia. The Russian
Military/Civilian Administration of Kherson Region announced that from 1
September, the start of the new school year, schools would teach a course
identified as Foundations of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics.
Forum 18 was unable to reach the Education and Science Ministry in Kherson
on 20 October to find out the content of the school course.
On 13 October, the Russian-installed head of Kherson Region administration,
Sergey Yeliseyev, declared on Telegram that in Kherson Region, "from the
moment of joining the Russian Federation", Russian law has been in force.
"Therefore, all crimes and offences will be punished in accordance with the
Criminal and Administrative Codes of the Russian Federation."
Zaporizhzhia Region: Protestant churches raided, closed, seized
On about 14 June, Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officers raided a
Baptist church in Vasilivka in Zaporizhzhia Region and recorded the details
of all those present, a leader of Ukraine's Baptist Union told Forum 18.
The officers told them that they were closing the church as a "destructive
sect" and no further meetings would be allowed. They seized the keys to the
building.
Then officers went to the home of the pastor, Mykola Zholovan, carried out
a search, and took away laptops and phones for checking. They put him under
house arrest. On 25 June, the Russian military detained Pastor Zholovan.
They released him only on 27 June. He fled the area for Ukrainian
government-controlled territory soon afterwards.
The duty officer at Vasilivka (Russian) Police, who did not give his name,
insisted to Forum 18 on 18 October that "churches are open". Asked why
Russian FSB officers closed the Baptist church in the town and the Russian
military detained the pastor, he put the phone down.
Also on 18 June, the Russian military detained Valentin Zhuravlev, a pastor
of the Melitopol Source of Life Protestant Church who is also a local
veterinary surgeon, while he was participating in a non-political
interfaith public prayer event in the city square, according to
eyewitnesses. He also has reportedly been released.
At the beginning of August, the Russian military seized the building of
Melitopol Christian Church, which is led by Pastor Viktor Sergeyev, banning
all further worship services, the vsirazom.ua news website noted on 13
September. The military turned the church building – a large structure
with palm trees and fountains - into a cultural, entertainment and sports
complex.
On 4 August, the Russian-installed head of the nearby village of
Kirillovka, Yekaterina Umanets, posted pictures of herself on her Telegram
channel outside the seized Melitopol Christian Church, which had a large
Russian flag draped over the front. "Greetings from the Youth and Sports
Ministry," she wrote. "The sect in which the covens meeting against the RF
[Russian Federation] began to serve for the benefit of the RF."
The Russian military seized Word of Life Pentecostal Church in the centre
of Melitopol and began using it as a military base, local news agency RIA
Melitopol noted on Telegram on 30 August. Soldiers hung a camouflage net on
the fence around the building.
On 11 September, the Russian military raided the Protestant Grace Church in
Melitopol during the Sunday morning meeting for worship, the church noted
on its website. Church members were singing a worship song in Ukrainian as
soldiers mounted the stage to halt the service, as seen on the Church's
livestream. Soldiers recorded the names and passport details of all those
present. They forced the women and children out of the church building and
then photographed and fingerprinted all the men, taking their identity
documents, the inform.zp.ua news agency noted the same day.
Russian soldiers accused Grace Church members of having links with the
United States, declared the church "nationalised", and told them not to
come there in future. Soldiers detained two of the church's pastors,
including chief pastor Mikhail Britsin.
On 21 September, Russian military personnel came to the Baptist church in
the village of Chkalovo in Melitopol District and banned it from meeting,
the Ukrainian Baptist Union told Forum 18. "After the referendum, you will
no longer be here, we have only one faith – the Orthodox," a church
member quoted a soldier as telling the community.
Before the Russian invasion of the area in February, the Chkalovo church
had more than 100 members. About half remain, and have held meetings for
worship there each day since the invasion began.
The telephone at the (Russian) Melitopol District Military/Civilian
Administration was not answered each time Forum 18 called between 18 and 20
October.
On 18 October, the military commandant of the town of Chernihivka in
Berdyansk District took the keys of the Baptist Church and said that from
now on the building is the property of the "administration", Ukraine's
Baptist Union announced the following day. Officials ordered the church
community to hand over the documents for the church building within three
days.
The telephone at the (Russian) Berdyansk District Police was not answered
or was busy each time Forum 18 called on 20 October.
Kherson Region: Imam seized, tortured, books confiscated, mosque closed
Rustem Asanov, a Crimean Tatar, was Imam of the Muslim Birlik (Unity)
Mosque community in the village of Shchastlivtseve in Henichevsk District
in Ukraine's Kherson Region. Shchastlivtseve is on a spit of land off the
eastern coast of Russian-occupied Crimea, although was not itself occupied
until the 2022 renewed Russian invasion. The Birlik community was part of
the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Crimea, which re-established
itself in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in 2016 following the illegal Russian
annexation of Crimea in 2014
(https://www.nhc.no/en/qa-brea
Freedom of religion and belief violations in Russian-occupied Crimea
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
imposition of Russian laws and restrictions on exercising human rights,
including freedom of religion or belief; jailing Muslim and Jehovah's
Witness Crimean prisoners of conscience; forcible closure of places of
worship; and fining people for leading meetings for worship without Russian
state permission.
Imam Asanov was in Henichevsk District at the time of the renewed Russian
renewed invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and was detained and tortured
in a basement by Russian occupation forces for one day in early March, he
told the Kyiv-based Institute for Religious Freedom in a video interview
published on 22 September. The Russian forces detained him because he was
taking part in a demonstration, but when they discovered he led a local
religious community they began focusing on that, he told Forum 18 on 11
October. The soldiers stressed to him that "I, as a religious figure, set
the wrong example for my community. It annoyed them."
The day after Imam Asanov's release in early March, Russian military forces
came to the Birlik Mosque while he was there. The Russian occupation forces
came to inspect the Mosque's contents, particularly focusing on the
literature it had. "With them was a Muslim apparently from the [Russian]
North Caucasus, possibly from Dagestan and possibly working for them,"
Asanov told Forum 18 on 11 October. "He was obviously responsible for
Muslims. He looked through all the books and confiscated those that he
deemed 'not correct'. He had no list of literature with him, and was
obviously identifying books [to confiscate] from memory."
Asanov estimates that the unidentified man took about one third of the
mosque's books. These included the prayer collection "Fortress of a Muslim"
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
interpretation of the Koran by the Saudi theologian Abdul-Rahman al-Sa'di,
both of them banned by Russian courts in Russia and on the Russian Federal
List of Extremist Materials.
"The occupation administration provided local imams with lists of
recommended literature that can be used, as well as lists of prohibited
religious literature," Asanov told the Kyiv-based Institute for Religious
Freedom in a video interview published on 22 September. "Now services are
not taking place – during this turmoil, we suspended religious activities
because people are intimidated."
The Birlik (Unity) Mosque community in Shchastlivtseve remains closed, with
few members still in the town, Asanov told Forum 18 on 11 October.
The telephone of the (Russian) Police in Henichevsk District was not
answered each time Forum 18 called between 18 and October.
Kherson Region: Christian Institute seized, Pastor and local residents
seized
On 9 March, the Russian military seized the Baptist Taurida Christian
Institute in the village of Antonivka, Kherson Region, and turned it into a
military base. Soldiers damaged buildings and stole property, the Institute
for Religious Freedom noted.
Russian military seized a number of local residents, including a Protestant
pastor in Kakhovka District of Kherson Region, the (Ukrainian) Kherson
Regional Police announced on Facebook on 17 September. Police did not name
the pastor.
Who to affiliate with, pray for?
Russian military and other occupation officials have demanded that
religious communities and leaders affiliate with Russian instead of
Ukrainian religious entities.
While Imam Asanov was being held and tortured in early March by Russian
forces (see above), one man in civilian clothes insisted that he co-operate
with the occupation authorities. The man would not give his name, but gave
his call sign as "Bars" (Leopard). Imam Asanov suspects from "Bars'" manner
that he was from the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).
"Bars" also insisted that Imam Asanov cut the community's ties to the
Spiritual Administration in Kyiv and subjugate his mosque community to the
Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Crimea in the occupied Ukrainian
city of Simferopol. He complained that this organisation "went over to the
Russian side" following the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014,
describing its leaders as "traitors".
"Bars" also told Asanov that in time, all religious communities in
Russian-occupied territory would be required to re-register with Russia's
Justice Ministry under Russian law, Asanov told Forum 18. "Ukraine won't
exist," "Bars" told him.
Imam Asanov fled from Russian-occupied territory to Ukrainian
government-held territory in late March.
At least one priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate)
faced problems over praying for Ukraine during the liturgy. Archimandrite
Feognost Pushkov, a UOC priest in Luhansk Region
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
stop praying for "God-protected Ukraine, its authorities and armies" as he
feared that the rebel Luhansk authorities might interpret this as
"separatism".
Archimandrite Pushkov explained on Telegram that "as I do not accept the
LPR juridically", and thought praying for an undetermined "our country"
unacceptable, he chose instead to pray for "God-protected Luhansk lands"
and peace instead. "My prayer is demilitarised to the limit and should not
cause any criticism if our church is visited by those who, on the contrary,
are militarised to the limit."
On 10 June, the Luhansk Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow
Patriarchate) held a Diocesan Council, which voted to reject the 27 May
changes agreed by the UOC Synod in Kyiv to distance the Church from the
Moscow Patriarchate. The Luhansk Diocese decided to stop commemorating in
the liturgy Metropolitan Onufry (Berezovsky), the UOC head, and to ask
Patriarch Kirill to take the Diocese under his direct jurisdiction.
"They put pressure on Metropolitan Panteleimon [Povoroznyuk] for a long
time," Archimandrite Feognost noted on Telegram on 11 June, citing a cleric
and a layperson from Luhansk. "He didn't make up his mind until the last
minute. He faced pressure not just from the LPR authorities, but from its
zealous supporters among the local 'influencers' in cassocks!" (END)
Full reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Occupied
Ukraine
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