In the eight years that Maksym Vasin’s been documenting Russian attacks on religious freedoms in Ukraine, the executive director of the Institute for Religious Freedom said the violence has never been as “cruel” as it is now.

After Russia annexed Crimea and backed separatists to fight the Ukrainian government in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, they persecuted religious minorities, but the scale and brutality weren’t the same, he said.

“If in 2014 the Russian invaders threatened to kill priests, now they are being killed,” Vasin said. “If previously they expelled believers from Ukrainian churches and prayer houses, now they are destroying them with bombs and missiles strikes.”

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters its second month, attacks on religious freedoms as well as human rights abuses are escalating, with accusations that soldiers are committing war crimes. Religious leaders, local officials, civil society, and journalists are being disappeared or arbitrarily detained, Ukrainians are being forcibly displaced into Russia, and religious institutions are being destroyed.

The Institute for Religious Freedom has documented the destruction or damage of at least 70 spiritual sites in eight regions as a result of Russian shelling and airstrikes — compared with less than a dozen in the last eight years — including cathedrals, prayer houses, synagogues, mosques, and administrative buildings of religious organizations, Vasin said. Last week, the Drobitsky Yar Holocaust Memorial near the northeastern city of Kharkiv was reportedly shelled by Russian forces.

Intentional attacks against buildings dedicated to religion, provided they are not military objectives, constitute war crimes, according to International Humanitarian Law. Vasin said the Russian army has also killed, captured, or arbitrarily imprisoned at least nine priests and pastors. 

Documenting crimes against humanity

Rights experts said that Ukraine’s conflict is unique in that it’s likely the first in history with so many avenues toward accountability, and if evidence is gathered properly, it has the potential for being used in judicial proceedings to hold people responsible for unlawful attacks more effectively than in previous conflicts.

Maksym Vasin of the Institute for Religious Freedom said he spends a lot of time verifying data, conducting interviews with witnesses and religious leaders, and exchanging information with other rights organizations in order to get a complete picture of war crimes being committed and to give the evidence to the International Criminal Court and the Office of the General Prosecutor of Ukraine to investigate.

“We are documenting war crimes to bring Russia to justice and to pay a high price, including in reparations, for every life lost,” he said.

The full article is published in Devex