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Report: Russia Has Attacked at Least 270 Religious Sites in Ukraine

“[I]t wasn’t just the building of our religious mission that was destroyed,” said Denis Gorenkov, executive director of Mission Eurasia Field Ministries, in the report. “Russian soldiers purposefully burned Gospels printed in Ukrainian, and a lot of our educational literature aimed at families, public life, and educating church leaders.”

The IRF reported at least 20 cases of illegal incarceration by the Russian military of Ukrainian religious leaders of various faiths. The victims told IRF their imprisonments were accompanied in many cases by torture, real death threats, attempted rape and threats of harm to their family members.

In Melitopol, Russian soldiers raided and closed the city’s three largest Protestant churches, Belz wrote in a report based on information from Release International. They interrupted the worship service of Grace Baptist Church, registered those in attendance and gave Pastor Mikhail Brisyn 48 hours to leave the city, according to the report.

In addition to urging the Senate and President Biden to act, the report’s recommendations also included:

  • Personal sanctions by the European Union (EU) and others against Russian officials, religious leaders and other individuals “responsible for justifying and (or) implementing repressions” against faith leaders and communities.
  • Support from the E.U., United States and other United Nations (U.N.) members of Ukraine’s attempts to investigate and prosecute war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity committed by the Russian military.

As of Oct. 22, civilian casualties in Ukraine had totaled 6,374 killed and 9,776 injured since Russia’s invasion, according to the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. More than 7.8 million refugees from Ukraine have been recorded across Europe, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees reported Nov. 8.

This article originally appeared at Baptist Press.