For nearly ten years, the Russian Federation through its military and proxy forces has committed gross religious freedom violations in Ukraine. Following Russia’s 2014 illegal annexation of Crimea, Russian-installed authorities there and in Donbas have enforced repressive Russian laws that severely curtail religious freedom and target religious minorities. Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian military forces have frequently damaged and destroyed religious buildings and other sites and killed or injured those sheltering or worshiping in these places. In areas under Russian control, de-facto authorities have abducted and tortured religious leaders and enforced the same repressive Russian legal mechanisms that were imposed in Crimea and Donbas. Furthermore, official Russian state discourse justifying and supporting the war has frequently resorted to rhetoric demonizing Jews, distorting the Holocaust, denigrating “non-traditional” religious groups and the LGBTQI+ community, and characterizing Russia’s unprovoked war of aggression in Ukraine as justified based on religion. This issue update highlights Russia’s religious freedom violations across Ukraine in the wake of its 2022 invasion.

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