The number of religious communities in the occupied Ukrainian lands has decreased by half

After the annexation of four Ukrainian regions by Russia, the number of religious communities in these territories has more than halved – since 1967, only 902 organizations have remained, Novaya Gazeta Evropa has found.

Partly this is due to the mass resettlement of the population and destruction. But if the hostilities were the only factor, the number of communities of different faiths would have decreased evenly, but this did not happen: those not subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate were most affected.

For example, the number of parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), later included in the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), decreased by 1.4 times, while the number of Protestant communities decreased by 3.6 times. The Catholic Church has been almost completely destroyed: out of 15 parishes of the Roman Catholic Church, only one remains, and out of 49 parishes of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic (i.e. Uniate) Church, none. The parishes of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), established in 2018 and independent of Moscow, have also been completely liquidated.

In general, the number of religious organizations not directly subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate has decreased fivefold during the occupation.

Only in some cases has the liquidation of communities been based on official bans. For example, in Russia, Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Protestant Church of the New Generation have been banned – their activities in the occupied territories have been suspended.

In most cases, however, the pressure is outside the legal framework: there is no official justification, but the communities cannot continue their activities anyway. For example, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is banned only in one of the regions occupied by Russia – Zaporozhye, but in practice its activities are completely interrupted in all occupied regions.

Religious “cleansing” is carried out through violence and repression: priests are killed, kidnapped, arrested and deported. As a result, churches are forced either to completely cease their activities in the occupied regions, or to go underground – for the safety of clergy and believers.

The temples of the churches expelled from the regions are either occupied by the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) or rebuilt for the needs of the occupation authorities. For example, in Mariupol, the ROC has taken over the temple of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). Another OCU church in the Novoazovsky district is a morgue, and the Protestant temple in Melitopol is used as a concert hall for the Russian military.

The pressure is not limited to denominations “hostile” to the ROC. Even the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) – the only one in Ukraine recognized by the Moscow Patriarchate as canonical – is placed under full control. All its parishes have been annexed and incorporated into the ROC, and priests are required to be loyal to the Russian authorities, renounce Ukrainian identity, and participate in propaganda activities. Many clergy refuse such “cooperation” and leave the occupied territories. In the areas controlled by Ukraine until 2022 (excluding the so-called “LDPR”), only about half of the priests have remained in their posts after the invasion of Russian troops. The rest were appointed after the occupation, which shows the massive change in the religious map under pressure from Moscow. Moscow is also gradually replacing the church leadership: in three of the eight dioceses in the occupied regions, the Ukrainian clergy has been replaced with “verified” cadres from Russia. This is part of the Russian Orthodox Church’s plan to establish full control over religious life in the annexed territories, claims Novaya Gazeta Evropa.

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