More than 67 years after his birth and 40 years living in the same house in Krasnodon, now in Russian-occupied Luhansk Region, Council of Churches Baptist Pastor Vladimir Rytikov – a Ukrainian citizen - has lost his appeal on 6 October against the decision to annul his Russian residence permit. The decision now goes into force and he faces deportation from all Russian-controlled territory, both Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine and Russia itself. He intends to appeal to the Second Cassational Court in Moscow, asking also for the deportation to be suspended pending the cassational appeal.

The Russian-controlled Interior Ministry branch in Luhansk annulled Pastor Rytikov's residence permit in February on the basis of information about him from the Federal Security Service (FSB) branch in Russia's Rostov Region. The FSB claimed he was an individual who "advocates for the violent change of the foundations of the constitutional order of the Russian Federation, or by other actions creates a threat to the security of the Russian Federation or citizens of the Russian Federation". The FSB gave no details in court or elsewhere of any threat Pastor Rytikov represented (see below).

The duty officer at Rostov Region FSB refused to put Forum 18 through to anyone who could explain why it issued such an instruction about Pastor Rytikov (see below).

The Council of Churches Baptist congregation in Krasnodon [official Ukrainian name Sorokyne], which Pastor Rytikov leads, meets for worship without Russian registration or notification of its existence to the Russian Justice Ministry. Russian officials have in recent years repeatedly raided meetings for worship in the church. Courts have repeatedly fined him and other local Baptists (see below).

Pastor Rytikov pointed out after the 6 October hearing that his "guilt" was his alleged threat to the security of the Russian Federation. "No one could say how this threat was manifested. It was a finding by the FSB. I was told many times 'It was not us, it was the Rostov FSB', and we should therefore ask them the question, so that they could give clarity as to the reasons for the expulsion, the deportation as they put it" (see below).

Pastor Rytikov added: "The court paid no attention to my statements that I was born and have lived in Krasnodon for 67 years, have a family – children and grandchildren, brothers and sisters, and our son, disabled as a result of military action in 2015, lives with us - this is my home, and my home church in which I carry out service as a pastor. I have put everything into the hands of the Lord" (see below).

Russian officials have seized documents for Pastor Rytikov's house and land and will not return them. "They've deprived us of all rights. For a year and a half, my wife and I have not received our pensions," he noted in July (see below).

Forum 18 again asked the Russian-controlled Luhansk Human Rights Ombudsperson Anna Soroka why officials were preparing to deport Pastor Rytikov, who had been born locally and lived most of his life there. Forum 18 also asked what action she was preparing to take (if any) in the case. Forum 18 received no response (see below).

Meanwhile, Russian officials have continued to prosecute religious leaders for "missionary activity" to punish them for exercising freedom of religion or belief. Krasnodon Town Court fined the pastor of a different local Baptist church on 21 July. In an apparent first in parts of Ukraine Russia illegally occupied in 2022, on 25 August Luhansk's Zhovtnevy District upheld the Russian-controlled Prosecutor's Office suit to ban the activity of a local Council of Churches Baptist congregation because it meets for worship without registration or notification of its existence (see forthcoming F18News article).

Krasnodon-born, Soviet-era religious prisoner of conscience

Vladimir Pavlovich Rytikov was born in Krasnodon in the then Voroshilovgrad Region of Soviet Ukraine on 1 September 1959. Like his father and other relatives, he became a member of the Council of Churches Baptists. Their communities refused to seek state permission to exercise freedom of religion or belief, both in the Soviet period and afterwards.

The Soviet authorities jailed Rytikov from 1979 to 1982 to punish his exercise of freedom of religion or belief. He was rehabilitated in 1995. (His father Pavel was jailed on the same day in 1979, also for three years.)

Vladimir Rytikov has led the Krasnodon church since 1990. The Baptists ordained him as a pastor in 1995.

The Interior Ministry of the then Luhansk People's Republic issued Pastor Rytikov with a passport on 2 August 2021. However, the Russian authorities declared LNR passports no longer valid after the end of 2024. Pastor Rytikov - who retains his Ukrainian passport - declined to swear the oath of allegiance and accept a Russian passport.

Rytikov has lived in the same house in Krasnodon since November 1986, according to the 17 July 2026 court decision. He is the primary carer for one of his sons, who has suffered from disabilities since 2015. He also looks after his wife Lyudmila, whose health has suffered in recent years.

Repeated raids on worship meetings, fines

After Russian-backed rebels established the Luhansk People's Republic in 2014, its officials repeatedly raided Council of Churches Baptist congregations and fined those who lead them. This continued after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and its claim to have annexed Ukrainian territories in September 2022.

Russian officials have in recent years repeatedly raided meetings for worship in the church Pastor Vladimir Rytikov leads in Krasnodon [official Ukrainian name Sorokyne] in Russian-occupied Luhansk Region. Courts have repeatedly fined him and other local Baptists.

When Pastor Rytikov was last fined for "illegal missionary activity" in July 2025, prosecutors brought the case against him under Russian Administrative Code Article 5.26, Part 5 ("Foreigners conducting missionary activity") as a non-citizen. The court fined him but did not order his expulsion.

On 25 January 2026, about 10 officials from the Russian Interior Ministry's Centre for Countering Extremism, local Police and military (some armed with automatic weapons), raided the Krasnodon church's Sunday morning worship service.

The officers accused church members of meeting illegally as the church has no Russian registration. They took Pastor Rytikov to the police station, where they interrogated him for some time. "They said that if we don't register, they'll come to every service and stop it taking place," Pastor Rytikov said in January.

Pastor Rytikov complained to the Interior Ministry's Centre for Countering Extremism in Luhansk about its officers' actions during the raid. However, in a 25 March written response (seen by Forum 18), it deemed his complaint "unsupported, as the circumstances set out in the appeal have been recognised as unfounded".

Forum 18 was unable to reach the Interior Ministry's Centre for Countering Extremism each time it called on 8 October.

On 9 March, officials handed Pastor Rytikov a summons from acting head of Krasnodon Police Lieutenant Colonel Aleksey Mikhailovsky. He ordered Pastor Rytikov to come to the police station on the morning of 19 March for them to draw up a record of an offence under Russian Administrative Code Article 5.26, Part 4 ("Russians conducting missionary activity") for leading his unregistered Baptist congregation.

On 11 March, three police officers came to Pastor Rytikov's home in Krasnodon. They insisted that he had to go to the police station not on 19 March but immediately for them to draw up the record of an offence for "illegal missionary activity".

Officials annul residence permit

Russian Migration Service officials came to Pastor Vladimir Rytikov's home in Krasnodon on 21 March. They told him they were cancelling his residence permit. They told him he had to leave for another country within two weeks. When he asked where he should go, they responded: "Go, maybe to Poland."

Migration officials told Pastor Rytikov that they were annulling only his residence permit, and not that of his wife Lyudmila. They refused to say why they were annulling his residence permit. "I was born here and have lived here for [nearly] 67 years, now I'm being driven out," Pastor Rytikov said he told the officials. "What if I don't go anywhere?" Officials responded: "We'll punish you." They added that they would remove him forcibly.

"They demanded that he hand them the document (residence permit)," local Baptists noted on 22 March. "But Vladimir refused to do so as they were holding a rubber stamp in their hands and wanted to stamp it as annulled." They told him the Migration Service has already informed all relevant (Russian) agencies.

When Pastor Rytikov asked why he was being forced to leave, the Migration Service officials showed him an order but refused to allow him to read it or to give him a copy. They ordered him to come to their office in Krasnodon on 23 March for his residence permit to be stamped as annulled.

Pastor Rytikov said he and his wife prayed about it and decided that he would remain. "The Lord saw fit for me to perform a ministry in Krasnodon," he noted.

"My telephone is surveilled and listened to," Pastor Rytikov added.

Pastor "advocates for violent change of .. constitutional order"?

On 23 March, Migration Service officials in Krasnodon handed Pastor Vladimir Rytikov a document confirming that Luhansk Region's Deputy Interior Minister Dmitry Semyonov had annulled his residence permit on 11 February as a foreign citizen who "advocates for the violent change of the foundations of the constitutional order of the Russian Federation, or by other actions creates a threat to the security of the Russian Federation or citizens of the Russian Federation".

Subsequent court documents indicate that on 5 February, the Federal Security Service (FSB) branch in Russia's Rostov Region had responded to a request from Luhansk Interior Ministry branch and had not supported granting a residence permit to Pastor Rytikov. The FSB cited Article 9, Part 1, Point 1 of the 2002 Russian Law on the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens, which allows for refusal or stripping of a residence permit for an individual who "advocates for the violent change of the foundations of the constitutional order of the Russian Federation, or by other actions creates a threat to the security of the Russian Federation or citizens of the Russian Federation".

The duty officer at Rostov Region FSB refused to put Forum 18 through on 8 October to anyone who could explain why it issued such an instruction about Pastor Rytikov.

The Interior Ministry of the then Luhansk People's Republic issued Pastor Rytikov with a passport on 2 August 2021. However, the Russian authorities declared LNR passports no longer valid after the end of 2024. Pastor Rytikov - who retains his Ukrainian passport - declined to swear the oath of allegiance and accept a Russian passport.

The Migration Service ordered Pastor Rytikov to leave Russian-controlled territory (both Russia and Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine) within 15 days. "In case of failure to leave within the specified period, you will be subject to deportation," it warned.

Although the decision was handed down by the Interior Ministry's Migration Service, the deportation order came at the instigation of the Russian FSB, as became clear in the subsequent court case.

Pastor's court challenge rejected

Pastor Vladimir Rytikov brought a civil administrative suit against the Russian Interior Ministry's Luhansk branch to Krasnodon Town Court "to recognise as illegal and to cancel the decision to annul the residence permit". The court set a hearing for 9 April.

Several hearings under Judge Yekaterina Pridatko took place. D. Morozov represented the Interior Ministry in court. Vartan Nazaretyan, a lawyer from Russia's Stavropol Region, represented Pastor Rytikov.

Only Pastor Rytikov was allowed into the court for each hearing. Even his wife Lyudmila was denied entry, as were church members. Each time, dozens of church members gathered at the court to support Pastor Rytikov.

At the final hearing on 17 July, Judge Pridatko rejected Pastor Rytikov's suit "in its entirety", church members noted. The written objection submitted by the Russian FSB indicated that its arguments are beyond even judicial review. The FSB is not required to provide evidence, and the court has no authority to demand it. "Neither the Interior Ministry nor the court knows the reasons for my deportation," Pastor Rytikov wrote after the court hearing. "The FSB's explanation was brief and perfunctory: 'A threat to security'."

The 14-page written decision, issued on 22 July and seen by Forum 18, was given to Pastor Rytikov only after he submitted a written request for it on 24 July.

The decision notes that Rostov Region FSB had not sent a representative to the hearings but had sent its written objection to Pastor Rytikov's suit. It added that Russia's FSB Statute requires it to participate in decisions on which foreign citizens are allowed to enter and live "on the territory of the Russian Federation". It also stressed that it has the right to determine who represents a threat to state security or public order. It claimed the Rostov Region FSB had "facts" confirming the danger Pastor Rytikov represented and had shared those in writing with Luhansk Interior Ministry. The court decision does not reveal what those "facts" are.

The court concluded that the decision to annul Pastor Rytikov's residence permit on the basis of information about him from Rostov Region FSB "represents an adequate measure of state reaction and does not violate his rights". It added that the decision had been taken by a "competent body in accordance with current legislation".

"My desire is to serve the Lord here, in this place"

"My desire is to serve the Lord here, in this place," Pastor Vladimir Rytikov insisted after the 17 July hearing. "I'm a native of Krasnodon in Luhansk Region, I was born and lived here for 67 years. I am not a migrant, I have served as a pastor in the local church since 1990. This is my home, my home church, my wife, my children and my grandchildren. It is my only residence, but officials have seized documents for the house and land and won't return them. They've deprived us of all rights. For a year and a half, my wife and I have not received our pensions."

Pastor Rytikov added: "Over the past seven years I have been taken to court many times: for missionary activity and holding services without giving notification of the start of a religious group's activity. Each year there have been two or three court cases, and many fines."

Officials at the Migration Service in both Krasnodon and Luhansk – part of Russia's Interior Ministry – did not answer the phone each time Forum 18 called on 8 October.

The telephone at Krasnodon's Russian-controlled Police went unanswered each time Forum 18 called on 8 October.

Pastor's further court challenge rejected

Once he received the written Krasnodon Town Court decision, Pastor Vladimir Rytikov lodged a further challenge to the Russian-controlled Luhansk Supreme Court, which received it on 10 September. On 6 October, a panel of three judges – chaired by Olga Bondarenko - rejected Pastor Rytikov's suit, according to court records.

Several dozen church members came to the court in Luhansk to support their pastor, greeting him and his wife afterwards with flowers. The hearing was closed, Pastor Rytikov noted after the hearing. "My request was that they should allow into the courtroom my wife, children, grandchildren, and church members who had come to the court. They let no one in. Three judges conducted the hearing, there was a secretary, a military guard, and an Interior Ministry representative."

Vartan Nazaretyan, a lawyer from Russia's Stavropol Region, represented Pastor Rytikov in the challenge, as he had done in the suit at Krasnodon Town Court. However, for health reasons the lawyer was not able to attend the hearing.

Pastor Rytikov pointed out that his "guilt" was his alleged threat to the security of the Russian Federation. "No one could say how this threat was manifested. It was a finding by the FSB. I was told many times 'It was not us, it was the Rostov FSB', and we should therefore ask them the question, so that they could give clarity as to the reasons for the expulsion, the deportation as they put it."

Pastor Rytikov added: "The court paid no attention to my statements that I was born and have lived in Krasnodon for 67 years, have a family – children and grandchildren, brothers and sisters, and our son, disabled as a result of military action in 2015, lives with us - this is my home, and my home church in which I carry out service as a pastor. I have put everything into the hands of the Lord." He acknowledged the "great worry" the court decision has caused in the church.

Pastor Rytikov said that the court set no timescale for any deportation, indicating that it was not its role to get involved.

Pastor Rytikov to appeal further

Now that Luhansk Supreme Court has rejected his appeal, the decision allowing the deportation of Pastor Vladimir Rytikov enters legal force once the Supreme Court has sent it to Krasnodon Town Court. Pastor Rytikov's lawyer, Vartan Nazaretyan, says his client will appeal further to the Second Cassational Court in Moscow. If that fails, he will appeal to Russia's Supreme Court.

"When we get the written court decision, we will lodge the cassational appeal," Nazaretyan told Forum 18 on 8 October. "We will also request a halt to the implementation of deportation until the cassational appeal is heard."

No response from Russian-controlled Human Rights Ombudsperson

On 8 October, Forum 18 again asked the Russian-controlled Luhansk Human Rights Ombudsperson Anna Soroka in writing why officials were preparing to deport Pastor Vladimir Rytikov, who had been born locally and lived most of his life there. Forum 18 also asked what action Soroka was preparing to take (if any) in the case. Forum 18 had received no response by the middle of the working day locally of 9 October.

Soroka did not respond to earlier similar questions. (END)

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

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