Ukraine's Foreign Ministry on April 10 again denounced the religious persecution carried out by Russia in the occupied Ukrainian territories, accusing Moscow of killing dozens of clergy members and damaging or destroying hundreds of churches.
Russia has been systematically suppressing Ukrainian churches and other faiths in the occupied territories while promoting the Kremlin-controlled Russian Orthodox Church, experts told the Kyiv Independent in May 2024.
Sixty-seven clergy members of various faiths have been killed between the start of Russia's all-out war in 2022 and February 2025, the Foreign Ministry said, citing the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance.
Russian occupation authorities also illegally hold more than 30 religious figures in detention. Over 640 places of worship, including 596 Christian churches, have been damaged or destroyed, according to the statement.
"The Russian state, together with the Russian Orthodox Church... have implemented a system of repression against religious communities in the occupied Ukrainian lands, aimed at destroying religious diversity and Ukrainian spiritual identity," the ministry said.
The ROC has reportedly forcibly absorbed eight dioceses of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, which included over 1,600 parishes and 23 monasteries.
Last year, Ukraine adopted a law potentially banning the Moscow-linked Ukrainian church due to its ties to the ROC and the pro-Russian activities of its clergy amid the full-scale war.
The ROC is seen as heavily tied to the Russian state, with its head, Moscow Patriarch Kirill, being a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and an open supporter of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Moscow has also been suppressing independent Ukrainian churches and other religions, including the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the Roman Catholic Church, Protestant and Muslim groups, and Jehovah's Witnesses, Kyiv says.
"Criminal cases are being fabricated against them, searches are being conducted, threats are being made, and physical pressure is being applied," the ministry said in a statement.
The Orthodox Church of Ukraine's communities have reportedly ceased to exist in occupied Crimea, and its last church on the peninsula was destroyed in June 2024.
The Foreign Ministry has appealed to "all churches, religious organizations, and believers around the world" to "pay attention to Russia's barbaric persecution of ordinary people who pose no threat to anyone and only want to believe in God and pray."
"We ask everyone in the world who values fundamental human rights not to silently watch crimes against faith and believers, for silence only strengthens evil and gives it a sense of impunity."
Multiple cases have shown that religious persecution in the occupied Ukrainian territories dates back to 2014, when Russia illegally seized Crimea and parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. Russian occupation authorities have been targeting Muslim Crimean Tatar communities as well as various Christian denominations in the Donbas region.
Andrea Januta
(Updated: )
