Evangelical Church seized in Occupied Ukraine

Case information
Incident date
Country
Ukraine
Place
Mariupol
Categories
  • Government Restrictions
Attack Against
  • Faith
Perpetrator / Motive Indicators
  • Political
Societal Sphere
  • Governmental
Hate Crime & Violent Incidents
  • Physical Violence
Religious Freedom / Discrimination
  • Arrest
  • Freedom of Conscience
  • Freedom of Religion
Place of Incident
  • Church
Bias Indicators
  • Pattern or Frequency of Attacks
  • Racial/Ethnic/Gender/Cultural Differences
  • Significance of Property/Structure/Location to religious community
Reported to Police
  • No
Response of Local Authorities
  • Unknown

On Tuesday the 16th of April, Russian forces seized the Ukrainian Christian Evangelical Church of the Holy Trinity in Mariupol. According to a US NGO, it is "part of a wider systematic religious persecution campaign in occupied Ukraine." More generally: many Ukrainian pastors said they had been arrested and tortured by Russian soldiers, with one saying that the troops were directed to "kill all the Christian pastors who are not part of the Russian Orthodox Church."

Symbolic Illustration by Benjamin Brunner on Unsplash

Sources