Recruitment Office officials seized 50-year-old Council of Churches Baptist Dmytro Koval on the evening of 1 March. After rejecting his refusal of military service on grounds of conscience and request to perform an alternative civilian service, officials transferred him to the military. On 6 March, he arrived at the Skelya Assault Regiment in Dnipropetrovsk Region. He died there on 21 March. His death certificate recorded the cause as "pulmonary-cardiac insufficiency, unspecified". It said he had died "in a car". When returned to his family, his body showed signs of brutal treatment.

"They hit him on the head a lot. They grabbed him by the neck and threw him - lifted him up and threw him again. They kicked him and punched him," one man in the same military unit told the journalist Kateryna Likhohliad (see below).

When officials returned Koval's body on 30 March, his face was unrecognisable. "His wife was able to recognise her husband's body only by his moles, the shape of his ears, facial wrinkles, and other distinctive features," Council of Churches Baptists noted on 31 March. "The body bears numerous injuries (bruises, contusions, a wound on the back, a depression in the chest behind the heart, and bruising on the neck). This raises many unanswered questions. Therefore, additional examinations will likely be ordered." The family have not been given a copy of a second forensic examination of the body (see below).

Uncertainty surrounds the state of the investigation. Koval's family have had no updates on any case against those responsible for his violent death. "Unfortunately, there is no new information at the moment," his widow Liliya Koval told Forum 18. "No one has been held responsible. Up till now, it has not even been possible to obtain the results of the second forensic medical examination."

"I have the impression that this crime is being covered up," Liliya Koval added. "Because, as far as I know, the criminal case was closed. Only a week later, the prosecutor's office overturned the decision to close the case. However, for almost three months, nothing has been done by the police or other state authorities" (see below).

No-one appears to have been prosecuted for Koval's violent death. Serhiy Popika of Kovel District Police, who is leading the pre-trial investigation, refused to say whether anyone has yet been arrested in the case. "I can't give any information," he told Forum 18 and put the phone down (see below).

Journalist Kateryna Likhohliad investigated the high death rate at the 425th Assault Regiment Skelya where Koval was killed. She found 26 non-combat deaths over a six-month period from late 2025, with many of those men dying within a month of arrival (see below).

Deputy Military Ombudsperson Ruslan Tsygankov admitted in April that the Skelya Regiment was one of two about which his office had received many complaints of torture. "These two units, in addition to their effectiveness, carry very high risks precisely in the context of violating the rights of servicemen. We understand this, and these two units are under our watch," he said (see below).

The Military Ombudsperson's Office in Kyiv did not respond to Forum 18's request for an interview about the alleged murder of Koval and the torture of other conscientious objectors while held against their will on military bases (see below).

Between March and April, three Jehovah's Witnesses – Serhiy Batiuzhenko, Eduard Martens and Ruslan Korobeinyk, all of them in their early fifties - were tortured at the same army training unit near Pidlisne, Dnipropetrovsk Region, for refusing military service as conscientious objectors. A military instructor beat them unconscious, while other soldiers mocked their faith, and withheld medical care (see below).

Investigators Slidyak and Andreyeva are leading the pre-trial investigation in relation to the torture of Batiuzhenko and Martens (Korobeinyk's torture appears not to be under investigation). The State Bureau of Investigation's Third Investigation Department located in Dnipro did not respond to Forum 18's request for an interview with them. Forum 18 has received no response to its written questions:
- Whether any suspects have been arrested;
- If so, when a trial is expected;
- and if not, why not (see below).

Recruitment offices have seized many men between the ages of 25 and 59 who refused to serve in the military on grounds of conscience and transferred them to military units. Of these, at least 49 men are from Council of Churches Baptist communities. They are still being held, despite expressing a willingness to perform alternative civilian service (see below).

The Parliamentary Human Rights Commissioner (Ombudsperson) Dmytro Lubinets admitted problems in the way Recruitment Offices seize men to be mobilised in his report for 2025, presented to parliament in May 2026. However, he made only passing reference to the torture of conscientious objectors, as well as conscripts, once in military units (see below).

Yurii Sheliazhenko of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement complained that "the Ombudsman's report ignores a problem of torture and cruel treatment of conscientious objectors and other conscripts" (see below).

In March, the United Nations (UN) Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine renewed earlier UN concern about the lack of the possibility of conducting alternative civilian service at a time of war. It has also expressed concern about violence against conscientious objectors who have been forcibly taken to military bases (see below).

Meanwhile, trials and jailings of conscientious objectors continue across the country.

On 9 March, a court in Mykolaiv Region jailed 42-year-old Jehovah's Witness conscientious objector Volodymyr Klementiev for six years. Mykolaiv Appeal Court rejected his appeal on 14 May. "To date, this is the longest prison sentence imposed on one of our brothers since the war in Ukraine began," Jehovah's Witnesses noted. The previous longest prison sentence was of five years.

On successive days in June, a court in Chernihiv Region found two Seventh-day Adventist conscientious objectors guilty. The Judges jailed Andrii Skliar and Ihor Kiktev – both in their thirties - for a combined period of 5 years and one month each.

"Meanwhile, hundreds more of our brothers await criminal prosecution, including the possibility of lengthy prison sentences," Jehovah's Witnesses added. "Many of these brothers have been forcibly taken to military facilities, where they have sometimes been held for days or even months. Once there, they often face physical abuse and emotional pressure to compromise their neutral stand."

The ⁠Rule of Law Roadmap, adopted by Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers on 14 May 2025, identifies priority reform areas in the fields of the judiciary, prevention of and fight against corruption, protection of fundamental rights, as well as justice, freedom and security. The document forms part of Ukraine's commitments under the EU accession process (see forthcoming F18News article).

The Roadmap identifies a "strategic goal": "The right to conscientious objection to military service on grounds of religious belief is ensured during martial law." The Roadmap sets a deadline of the end of June for "Development and adoption of a law on ensuring the right to undergo alternative service during martial law, for a special period". The government has assigned the task of preparing the new Law to the Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture (see forthcoming F18News article).

Severe human rights violations in Russian-occupied Ukraine

Serious violations of freedom of religion and belief and other human rights take place within all the Ukrainian territory Russia has illegally occupied.

Torture, corruption in Recruitment Offices

Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale war on Ukraine, Recruitment Offices have been a focus of concern. The government has frequently replaced the heads of local offices.

By late 2023, the State Bureau of Investigation (which investigates crimes by senior officials) was dealing with 260 cases of alleged crimes (including bribery and torture) at regional Recruitment Offices and military medical commissions, it announced on 10 October 2023.

Officials began investigations in 2024 after the deaths in Recruitment Offices of several men who had been called up for mobilisation.

The United Nations (UN) Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment defines torture as "any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity".

Under the Convention, Ukraine is obliged both to arrest any person suspected on good grounds of having committed torture "or take other legal measures to ensure his [sic] presence", and also to try them under criminal law which makes "these offences punishable by appropriate penalties which take into account their grave nature".

Ombudsperson "ignores" torture of conscientious objectors

The Parliamentary Human Rights Commissioner (Ombudsperson) Dmytro Lubinets has admitted problems in the way Recruitment Offices seize men to be mobilised. However, he has made only passing reference to the torture of conscientious objectors, as well as conscripts, once in military units.

"Violations of rights are reported in 1,669 appeals from individuals who, despite their religious convictions, were sent to military units, contrary to Article 35 of the Constitution of Ukraine, which provides grounds for replacing military duty with alternative (non-military) service," Lubinets wrote in his report for 2025. He presented the report to parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, on 13 May 2026.

Lubinets added: "The unlawful restriction of citizens' freedom of movement by [Recruitment Office] staff, the abuse of authority during detention, the unlawful seizure of personal belongings and mobile communication devices, the infliction of bodily harm, the conscription of citizens despite the existence of deferrals (reserve status) and other violations of rights negatively impact the state's image and discredit the mobilisation processes in Ukraine."

Yurii Sheliazhenko of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement complained in a 12 June article that "the Ombudsman's report ignores a problem of torture and cruel treatment of conscientious objectors and other conscripts".

Renewed UN concern for conscientious objectors

The United Nations (UN) Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine has renewed earlier UN concern about the lack of the possibility of conducting alternative civilian service at a time of war. It has also expressed concern about violence against conscientious objectors who have been forcibly taken to military bases. It raised these concerns in a report to the UN Human Rights Council (A/HRC/61/61) made public on 9 March 2026.

The Commission interviewed "men who have been active members of four different religious groups long before the onset of the full-scale invasion. All of them have refused to carry out a military activity and expressed readiness to carry out alternative civil service."

"Conscientious objectors interviewed reported that regardless of their express refusal to carry out any military activity, they have been taken by force to a Territorial Centre for Recruitment and further to a military camp," the UN Commission noted.

"Several among them experienced or witnessed physical violence, including beatings by staff of a Territorial Centre for Recruitment and the military personnel. They reported that in the military camps, they were subjected to punishment and psychological pressure, such as mock executions, confinement in a pit dug in the ground for long periods, including in winter; threats of sexual violence; and denial of food."

"The rapid manner in which men are mobilized for recruitment by the authorities, sometimes ignoring legitimate medical conditions or other impediments, combined with the lack of access to legal assistance, makes it difficult to challenge the legality of the process. It may take months before a court can rule on the legality of the mobilization, a period during which the person continues to serve in the armed forces. And even if the court decides that a person was mobilized illegally, the mobilization is generally considered irreversible."

The UN Commission concluded: "While Ukraine is operating under martial law and facing an armed conflict, compliance with legal obligations in the context of mobilization remains essential to ensuring an appropriate balance between citizens' rights and duties and to maintaining public trust in the authorities."

The UN Commission called on Ukraine to monitor the mobilisation process "with particular attention to the initial stage under the Territorial Centre for Recruitment, to ensure that all rights of persons mobilized are respected, including the right to legal assistance and conscientious objection". It also called on Ukraine: "Prevent and cease any form of violence during the mobilization and deployment process and ensure the effective and impartial investigation and prosecution of any violation."

Koval: Violent death at notorious military base

On the evening of 1 March, Council of Churches Baptist Dmytro Bohdanovych Koval (born 30 January 1976), a resident of the village of Lublynets in the north-western Volyn Region, went missing. His family filed a missing person report with the police.

"On 1 March, at about 8:00 pm, [Koval] went for a walk and did not return," Volyn Police noted on its website on the afternoon of 2 March. "The Volyn resident did not take his phone, money, or documents with him." Police asked anyone with information on his whereabouts to get in touch.

Although his family did not know it, Recruitment Office officials in Tlumach, Ivano-Frankivsk Region (where he was registered) had seized Koval as he sought to clarify his status. He told officials he was not refusing his duties to the state, but asked for an alternative civilian service on grounds of conscience in line with Article 35 of the Constitution. Officials refused this.

By On 6 March, the military transferred Koval to a military unit in Dnipropetrovsk Region, the 425th Assault Regiment Skelya (A4862). The commander of the regiment is Andrii Surai.

Koval's family had no direct contact with him once he was taken to the military. "Communication with him practically ceased," Council of Churches Baptists noted. "All that was possible to obtain from him was a short voice message dictated under close supervision. In it, Koval asked for heightened prayer and urgent help, emphasising that he was in a difficult situation." The family received the message on 8 March from an unknown number.

Koval was last seen alive by others at the military base on 14 March.

Koval died in the military unit on 21 March, just 15 days after arriving there, according to the official account. Only on 26 March were his family informed of his death, Council of Churches Baptists note. Two days later, a forensic medical examination of his body – conducted by Dr I. Burov (and seen by Forum 18) - claimed he had died of "pulmonary-cardiac insufficiency, unspecified". It said he had died "in a car".

Koval: High non-combat death rate

Journalist Kateryna Likhohliad investigated the high death rate at the 425th Assault Regiment Skelya. She found 26 non-combat deaths over a six-month period from late 2025, with many of those men dying within a month of arrival, she wrote on 23 June on the Babel news website. She cited Koval among the 26 cases.

"Dmytro was silent and frightened, praying for six to seven hours a day and refusing to eat at all," those in the unit with Koval told Likhohliad. "Some of those interviewed assume that the man was fasting. Others say that he was protesting."

One individual told Likhohliad: "He started talking about some of his rights. They just silenced him. They beat him, and he shouts: 'Guys, why are you beating me?' I look at his face - he doesn't understand what's happening at all."

Beatings followed Koval's refusals to eat. "He was beaten every day. He was beaten the hardest when he promised the guards that he would eat, but when he came to the canteen he refused," Likhohliad wrote. "They hit him on the head a lot. They grabbed him by the neck and threw him - lifted him up and threw him again. They kicked him and punched him," one witness told the journalist.

Koval was forcibly given intravenous drips, which officials said were vitamins.

Koval was abused by two medics of the unit with the call signs "Satan" and "Box", as well as the head of the training ground, all three witnesses who spoke to Likhohliad testify.

One witness told Likhohliad of how religious conscientious objectors were held in a pit. Conscripts with mental disorders were often held with them.

Regiment commander Surai insisted in a 21 May interview with Suspilne news website that phones had to be taken from conscripts to prevent Russian drones attacking a forest location with many mobile phones.

Asked about the deaths of five conscripts, Surai dismissed claims of abuse. "We basically don't have punishment cells," he claimed to Suspilne. "We met with families, and periodically they tell us: he was put 'in a pit'. You understand: a lot of attention is paid to Skelya. Military commissions, ombudspersons, and journalists constantly visit us. No one has ever found the 'pits', never seen them, but everyone is sure that they exist. It's the same with punishment cells. We don't have punishment cells."

Surai said that the unit must report any death within 24 hours, but to the Recruitment Office, not to the family. "Based on our notification, they prepare their documents and have seven days to report the death of a serviceman."

Deputy Military Ombudsperson Ruslan Tsygankov admitted that the Skelya Regiment and the 225th Assault Regiment were two about which his office had received many complaints of torture. "These two units, in addition to their effectiveness, carry very high risks precisely in the context of violating the rights of servicemen. We understand this, and these two units are under our watch," Ruslan Tsygankov told Radio Liberty on 2 April, less than two weeks after Koval's violent death.

Journalist Likhohliad noted that Koval was recorded as having died from natural causes. "But there are bruises on his body, and there are also three witnesses who say that he was beaten every day," she told Hromadske Radio on 24 June. "And that he refused to eat and nothing was done about it. He was further detained and instead of acting according to the law, handing him over to law enforcement agencies, they simply beat him."

Commander Surai told the same programme that Koval had refused to eat "for religious reasons". He did not address whether or not Koval had been murdered.

The Military Ombudsperson's Office in Kyiv did not respond to Forum 18's 24 June request for an interview.

Oleksii Bratushchak, spokesperson for the Skelya Regiment, did not immediately respond to Forum 18's 25 June request for an interview.

Koval: Returned body showed signs of torture

When returned to his home town of Kovel on 30 March, nine days after his alleged murder, Dmytro Koval's body showed signs of brutal treatment.

An examination of Koval's body showed signs of torture, with his face unrecognisable. "His wife was able to recognise her husband's body only by his moles, the shape of his ears, facial wrinkles, and other distinctive features," Council of Churches Baptists noted on 31 March. "The body bears numerous injuries (bruises, contusions, a wound on the back, a depression in the chest behind the heart, and bruising on the neck). This raises many unanswered questions. Therefore, additional examinations will likely be ordered."

On 31 March, his widow Liliya Koval asked Kovel District Police to open a pre-trial investigation into her husband's violent death, including under Criminal Code Articles of murder, torture, illegal abduction and abuse of power by an official. Not having heard back by 4 April, she lodged a suit against Kovel District Police to Kovel Inter-District Court about the failure to open a criminal investigation.

On 6 April, Judge Marina Gridyaeva upheld Liliya Koval's suit, in a decision seen by Forum 18. The Judge recognised her appeal to Kovel District Police as containing "objective data and circumstances that may indicate the commission of a number of criminal offences". The Judge instructed Kovel Police to initiate a case and enter it into the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations.

On 29 April, several doctors conducted a new forensic medical examination of Koval's body took place. Officials have not given the result of the examination to the family. The body was later released for burial.

Koval's Church in Kovel held his funeral and burial on 17 May. The coffin was closed during the funeral. Funerals are often held in Ukraine with an open coffin.

Uncertainty surrounds the state of the investigation. The pre-trial investigation is being led by Serhiy Popika of Kovel District Police. Asked on 24 June whether anyone has yet been arrested in the case, he refused to say. "I can't give any information," he told Forum 18 and put the phone down.

Koval's family have had no updates on any case against those responsible for his violent death. "Unfortunately, there is no new information at the moment," his widow Liliya Koval told Forum 18 on 23 June. "No one has been held responsible. Up till now, it has not even been possible to obtain the results of the second forensic medical examination."

"I have the impression that this crime is being covered up," Liliya Koval added. "Because, as far as I know, the criminal case was closed. Only a week later, the prosecutor's office overturned the decision to close the case. However, for almost three months, nothing has been done by the police or other state authorities"

Viktor Yelensky, head of the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS), told Forum 18 on 24 June that he had not heard of the alleged murder of Koval in the military unit.

Batiuzhenko: Tortured at military unit

On 17 February, Recruitment Office officials seized Jehovah's Witness Serhiy Volodymyrovych Batiuzhenko (born 1 July 1973) on the street in the eastern city of Dnipro as he was going to a hospital appointment. They told him he had been wanted since 9 February. They forcibly placed him in a car and took him to the city's Tsentralno-Chechelivka Recruitment Office.

Batiuzhenko told the Recruitment Office staff that he could not perform military service on grounds of conscience and had been a Jehovah's Witness for 16 years. "Despite this, he was handcuffed and forcibly placed in a semi-basement at a former paint and varnish factory near Zakhidny railway station," Jehovah's Witnesses told Forum 18. They then took him to a military base in Samariv District, Dnipropetrovsk Region.

At the military base, Batiuzhenko repeatedly explained that he could not perform military service on grounds of conscience. Military personnel mocked his religious beliefs. "They took away all his personal belongings and placed him in a room that they used as a 'guardhouse'," Jehovah's Witnesses told Forum 18. "The room was not equipped with any acceptable conditions for keeping people, with a temperature of minus 10 degrees Celsius."

Officials later took Batiuzhenko to the base's training unit near Pidlisne, Dnipropetrovsk Region (А4848). At the military base, Batiuzhenko refused to put on a military uniform. On 13 April, a commander ordered the head of the training centre to dress Batiuzhenko and fellow Jehovah's Witness Eduard Martens in white capes "like those worn by Jesus", parade them before the unit, and beat them.

Later, after both again refused, an instructor struck Batiuzhenko and Martens several dozen times with a wooden bat across the back, buttocks, neck, arms, and legs. "You are sectarians," the instructor shouted at them. "I will beat you until your flesh separates from your bones." He kept beating them after they passed out.

The next morning, when Batiuzhenko tried to reach the medical unit, guards threw him into a pit roughly three metres deep. They left him there for about half a day, where he repeatedly lost consciousness. He developed pneumonia and a high fever and was hospitalised for 24 days.

Batiuzhenko's documented injuries consisted of extensive bruising across the buttocks, legs, and arms (the largest bruise measuring 62 cms by 42 cms), and pneumonia. (Forum 18 has seen photographs of the injuries.)

On 27 April, a complaint was filed with the Poltava State Bureau of Investigation (SBI). It started an official investigation, which appears to be continuing, according to the pre-trial record seen by Forum 18.

Investigators Andrii Slidyak and A. Andreyeva of the Third Investigation Department located in the city of Dnipro are investigating the physical harm to Batiuzhenko "motivated by religious intolerance" under Criminal Code Article 426-1, Part 4. This punishes "Excess of power or official authority by a military official" when conducted during a special period. This carries a jail term of 7 to 10 years. The torture of Martens (see below) was later added to the same investigation.

Batiuzhenko has been recognised as a victim. He is currently in the city of Dnipro.

The Third Investigation Department located in Dnipro did not respond to Forum 18's 24 June request for an interview with Investigators Slidyak or Andreyeva. Forum 18 then sent written questions:
- Whether any suspects have been arrested in relation to the torture of Batiuzhenko and Martens;
- If so, when a trial is expected;
- and if not, why not.
Forum 18 had received no response by the afternoon of the working day of 25 June.

Viktor Yelensky, head of the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS), said he is aware of the torture of Batiuzhenko, Martens and Korobeinyk in the military unit. "We are checking this," he told Forum 18 on 24 June. "We have contact with the Jehovah's Witness leadership."

Martens: Tortured at military unit

Officials at Zaporizhzhia's Shevchenko District Recruitment Office seized 53-year-old Jehovah's Witness Eduard Oleksandrovych Martens on 27 March. They dismissed his insistence that he had been a Jehovah's Witness for 29 years and cannot perform military service on grounds of conscience. They took him to a military unit, but officials there refused to enrol him because of his health condition and sent him back to the Recruitment Office.

The following day, the Recruitment Office took Martens to a different military base, this time in Samariv District, in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk Region. "While in the military unit, Martens informed all military personnel that he was a Jehovah's Witness and due to religious beliefs could not be a soldier, wear a military uniform, or receive a soldier's salary," Jehovah's Witnesses told Forum 18.

Later on 28 March, officials took Martens to the military base's training unit near Pidlisne, Dnipropetrovsk Region (А4848). At the training unit, he refused both to wear a uniform and to sign consent to military training. Officials "took Martens to the city of Zaporizhzhia to a 'meeting' with military personnel unknown to him, and applied psychological pressure to force him to wear a military uniform", Jehovah's Witnesses said.

On 15 April, an instructor at the training unit beat him alongside Serhiy Batiuzhenko with a wooden bat (see above).

The next day, the instructor demanded again that Martens put on a uniform. When he refused, the instructor beat him until Martens convulsed and lost consciousness. The blows fractured his arm in two places and his wrist. For a month he received no treatment — his broken arm was merely splinted with a piece of wood.

Martens still suffers periodic loss of function in one leg and needs surgery, including a metal implant, for the bones to heal. Despite his injuries, he remained at his military unit and did not receive proper medical treatment.

It was only after the State Bureau of Investigation began an investigation that, on 14 May, Martens was sent to a hospital for treatment.

Martens' documented injuries consisted of two displaced fractures of the arm, multiple contusions, and pneumonia. He suffers from continuing loss of function in one leg, for which surgery is still required. (Forum 18 has seen photographs of the injuries.)

The harm done to Martens was added to the pre-trial criminal investigation into the harm done to Batiuzhenko. Martens has been recognised as a victim.

Martens is currently in Dnipro Municipal Hospital No. 4, undergoing medical treatment for the injuries.

Korobeinyk: Tortured at military unit

Officials took Jehovah's Witness Ruslan Korobeinyk, who is 51, to the same army training unit near Pidlisne, Dnipropetrovsk Region (А4848), despite his insistence that he cannot perform military service on grounds of conscience. He requested an alternative civilian service, but officials refused him this.

At the military unit, Korobeinyk refused to take up arms or to dig firing positions. The instructor, who assaulted Batiuzhenko and Martens, called Korobeinyk a "Satanist". Another soldier threatened to knock out his teeth because of his beliefs.

On 24 March, another soldier punched Korobeinyk twice in the face and ordered two of his subordinates to throw him into a river. By firing automatic weapons the two subordinates forced him to stay in water of about 5 degrees Celsius for roughly an hour, until his legs went numb. When Korobeinyk again refused to dig firing positions, the instructor struck him on the head three times, breaking his nose.

Days later, after another refusal, the instructor beat Korobeinyk in the face and knocked him to the ground. The instructor then hauled Korobeinyk back to his feet, and kept striking him, including blows to his torso and leg.

Officials do not appear to have begun an investigation into the cruel treatment of Korobeinyk, Jehovah's Witnesses told Forum 18.

Korobeinyk is currently in the city of Zaporizhzhia.

Many conscientious objectors held against their will in military units

Recruitment offices have seized many men - aged between 28 and 59 - who refused to serve in the military on grounds of conscience and transferred them to military units. Many have complained of torture, pressure and poor conditions.

As of early June, at least 50 men from Council of Churches Baptist communities are being held in such military units, despite expressing a willingness to perform alternative civilian service. Seized on 6 June was Oleksandr Redkostin from a village in the central Kirovohrad Region. The 52-year-old is being held in a military unit in the north-western Rivne Region (A5338).

Viktor Yelensky, head of the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS), told Forum 18 on 24 June that he was not aware of the detention of these Council of Churches Baptists on military bases.

Many Protestant and Jehovah's Witness conscientious objectors are similarly being held in military units.

Recruitment Office officials seized a 45-year-old Orthodox deacon, Grigory Filonenko, in Malin in the northern Zhytomyr Region on 30 April and took him to a military base. Metropolitan Agafangel (Pashkovsky), the Odesa-based leader of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (which chose in 2007 to remain completely separate from the Moscow Patriarchate) complained to the Defence Ministry and the Ombudsperson in early May.

"According to Church canons, members of the clergy may not take up arms or shed blood - for they offer the bloodless Sacrifice at the Altar," Metropolitan Agafangel wrote. "Should they shed human blood, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, they forfeit the right to celebrate the Divine Liturgy and are suspended from sacred ministry."

The Ombudsperson's Office did not respond.

The 4 June response to Metropolitan Agafangel's letter to the Defence Ministry came from Oleh Nikitin, acting head of Zhytomyr Region's Recruitment Office. He stated that alternative civilian service is not available during martial law.

On the issue of mobilisation of priests, Nikitin cited provisions for clergy of registered religious organisations which have assigned them to the role of military chaplains. "Thus, members of the clergy are afforded the opportunity to perform military service - without bearing arms - concurrently with their priestly duties," he concluded.

Metropolitan Agafangel responded to the letter on 5 June. "It follows from [Nikitin's] response that in Ukraine, during martial law, no one has the right to follow their conscience in observing the sixth commandment of the Law: 'Thou shalt not kill'."

Officers in the military unit put Deacon Grigory under "such constant pressure to swear the military oath and go to the front – including beatings - that at the very first opportunity he abandoned the unit," a fellow church member told Forum 18 on 25 June. (END)

More reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in all Ukraine

More reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Russian-occupied Ukraine

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