In the temporarily occupied territories, the occupiers exert pressure on representatives of religious denominations, except for the Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.
In particular, the Russians are shutting down churches of Protestant denominations, reported the Center of National Resistance (CNR), which was created by the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on January 26, Gordon reports.
The Russians seized the building of the Church of Evangelical Christians in Melitopol after first issuing the relevant permits to the priest but then they simply capturing the premises and taking the keys, the report says.
The unit noted that there are almost no functioning Protestant churches left in the city, as most of them were expropriated by the occupiers for their own needs. The situation is similar in other captured settlements.
Previously, the Russians began to engage in the “integration” of churches in the temporarily occupied territories, within which only churches controlled by the Kremlin will remain in the region, the report states. This is done by the NGO Russian Association for the Protection of Religious Freedom, which is financed by Russian presidential grants.
“In fact, the organization is engaged in auditing the property of other denominations in order to further destroy all Protestant movements, the local Orthodox Church of Ukraine, and Muslim centers that are not under the control of the spiritual administration of Muslims in Russia.
“Moscow has already practiced a similar policy in Crimea,” the report emphasized.
