According to Maksym Vasin, executive director of the Institute for Religious Freedom in Kyiv, a strategy of intimidation is typical for the Russian military and occupational authorities.

“Russia uses religion as a tool to increase or maintain its influence on Ukraine …, trying to influence Ukrainian people affiliated with their Ukrainian Orthodox Church that is connected to the Moscow Orthodox Patriarchate,” Mr. Vasin said. 

“Believers of different denominations suffered persecution because if they don’t cooperate with Russian occupation authorities, if they manifest their Ukrainian identity, they are persecuted,” he said. The occupiers, he said, “seize church buildings, loot them, or close them for public worship services.”

Mr. Vasin, now working in exile in the U.S., said expelling Russian forces is the only long-term solution for the affected churches and congregations.

“I believe that if we are looking for a solution to this military conflict, we have to understand that [the] only option we have to establish a just full peace and restore human rights and religious freedom is to kick off Russian troops from Ukrainian sovereign territory,” he said. 

“If Russia retains its control of some territories in Ukraine, there is no freedom, human rights, or any religious freedom,” he said.

The full article is published in The Washington Times