The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one’s belief or religion
The right to join together and express one’s belief
4 March 2025
OCCUPIED UKRAINE: Religious freedom survey, March 2025
Freedom of religion or belief and interlinked human rights are seriously violated in Russian-occupied Ukraine. Forum 18's survey analysis documents among other violations: serious systemic freedom of religion or belief violations starting with the initial March 2014 invasion; pressuring, kidnapping, torturing, jailing, and murdering religious leaders; stopping meetings for worship, banning and closing religious communities; jailing prisoners of conscience for exercising freedom of religion or belief; banning religious texts and purging libraries; and "anti-missionary" prosecutions. Until Russia's occupation of Ukrainian territory is ended, the freedom of religion or belief and other human rights violations seem set to continue.
22 September 2022
CRIMEA: Religious freedom survey, September 2022
Freedom of religion and belief is, along with other human rights, severely restricted within the Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory of Crimea. Forum 18's survey analysis documents violations including: forced imposition of Russian laws and restrictions on exercising human rights, including freedom of religion or belief; jailing Muslim and Jehovah's Witness Crimean prisoners of conscience; forcible closure of places of worship; and fining people for leading meetings for worship without Russian state permission.
23 February 2022
DONBAS: Luhansk: Religious freedom survey, February 2022
Freedom of religion and belief is severely restricted in the rebel Luhansk People's Republic occupying currently (February 2022) about a third of Ukraine's Luhansk Region. Forum 18's survey analysis documents violations including: rendering illegal all Protestant and non-Moscow Patriarchate Orthodox communities; a climate of fear about discussing human rights violations; repeated denials of permission to a Roman Catholic priest to live in the region; and increasing numbers of banned allegedly "extremist" books, including an edition of the Gospel of John published in 1820.
27 March 2015
CRIMEA: Religious freedom survey, March 2015
One year after Russia's March 2014 annexation of Crimea, Forum 18 News Service notes the forced imposition of Russian restrictions on freedom of religion or belief. Individuals and religious communities have faced raids, fines, religious literature seizures, government surveillance, expulsions of invited foreign religious leaders, unilateral cancellation of property rental contracts and obstructions to regaining places of worship confiscated in the Soviet period. Only one percent of communities which had state registration under Ukrainian law have succeeded in gaining the compulsory Russian re-registration. Members of a wide range of religious communities are highly cautious about discussing anything that could be interpreted as criticism of Russian rule for fear of possible reprisals. This includes a reluctance to discuss restrictions on freedom of religion or belief.