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30 October 2024

UKRAINE: About 300 criminal cases against conscientious objectors

The number of new criminal cases against conscientious objectors has surged since summer 2024 after the General Prosecutor's Office wrote to local prosecutors. About 300 conscientious objectors now face criminal investigations which could lead – if cases reach court and end in convictions – to a 3 to 5 year jail term. Of the 89 cases related to 86 individuals that have already reached trial (listed in this article), courts handed down 9 jail terms (only one conscientious objector is currently in jail), with 11 suspended sentences. Trials in 66 of the 89 known cases that have reached trial are ongoing.

18 October 2024

UKRAINE: Recruitment offices, military detain, pressure and torture conscientious objectors

On 11 June, Recruitment Office officials tortured Adventist conscientious objector Pavlo Halagan to pressure him to accept mobilisation. "They tied me to the bed with chains and began to physically torture, punch and beat me," he complained. On 1 July, at a military camp, "one commander grabbed me by the neck", Baptist conscientious objector Kiril Berestovoi complained. "He hit me on the head, beat me around the heart." The torture lasted half an hour. Officials use a range of means to persuade men to accept being conscripted into the armed forces, including verbal persuasion, threats of imprisonment or unspecified consequences, arbitrary detention (sometimes for several months), and torture including deprivation of food, of imprisonment or unspecified consequences, and beatings.

8 October 2024

OCCUPIED UKRAINE: Orthodox priest handed 4-year suspended sentence

Officials in Russian-occupied Luhansk Region freed Fr Feognost (Pushkov) of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) on 4 October after pre-trial detention he called "107 days of hell". After house searches and examination of his writings and electronic devices, a court convicted him of "large-scale" drug trading after finding a small amount of cannabis. His 4-year suspended sentence - with 3 years of restrictions under probation - came into force after the prosecutor chose not to appeal. On 14 November, Moscow's First Appeal Court hears the appeal by another UOC priest Kostiantyn Maksimov against a 14-year strict-regime jail term on "espionage" charges.

17 September 2024

UKRAINE: Law banning Ukrainian Orthodox Church about to enter force

Law No. 3894-IX banning the Russian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate (ROC) and Ukrainian religious organisations affiliated with the ROC comes into force on 23 September. Its main target is the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). While addressing real security concerns over the ROC's involvement in Russian aggression, the Law does not comply with legally-binding international standards of freedom of religion or belief, and significantly increases State powers to arbitrarily monitor and restrict religious communities and the expression of religious ideas. Government, public and private actors already see it as a signal to attack UOC communities and believers.

21 August 2024

UKRAINE: Real threats, but freedom of religion or belief concerns

Clerics and believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate (UOC) have and are facing criminal charges of justifying Russian aggression and hate speech. Many have been prosecuted for criticising the rival Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the state's religious policies. The state faces a real threat of the utilisation of religion to justify Russian aggression, but uses tools - imposing a blatant ban on the UOC and turning inter-Orthodox relations in Ukraine into a security issue - that are neither reasonable nor proportionate.

5 August 2024

OCCUPIED UKRAINE: Orthodox priest's 14-year "espionage" jail term

At a closed hearing at the Russian-controlled Crimean Supreme Court in Simferopol on 2 August, Zaporizhzhia Regional Court jailed 41-year-old Ukrainian Orthodox priest Fr Kostiantyn Maksimov in a strict regime labour camp for 14 years on "espionage" charges. "I'm in such shock," his mother Svetlana Maksimova told Forum 18. He is likely to be illegally transferred to Russia after any appeal. On 15 August, a verdict is expected in the criminal trial of Olena, a Protestant from Melitopol facing up to 10 years' imprisonment for remarks at a prayer meeting.

1 July 2024

OCCUPIED UKRAINE: One arrest, one reported jail term, two releases

Russian occupation officials refuse to give any information about 44-year-old Ukrainian Orthodox Church priest Feognost Pushkov, arrested on 20 June. Officials have been investigating his social media posts and searched his home in Prosyanoe in occupied Luhansk Region. Fr Feognost was sole carer for his elderly mother. Unconfirmed reports say the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia Regional Court sentenced a Protestant in her fifties to a 7-year jail term. She was prosecuted for comments at a home prayer meeting. Russia freed Greek Catholic priests Bohdan Heleta and Ivan Levytsky on 28 June after 19 months.

19 June 2024

OCCUPIED UKRAINE: Orthodox priest's "espionage" verdict due 2 August

Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) priest Kostiantyn Maksimov faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted on Russian "espionage" charges. His trial began on 6 June, with the final presentation of arguments due on 31 July and the verdict on 2 August. Seized by occupation forces in May 2023, Fr Kostiantyn is in Investigation Prison No. 2 in the Crimean capital Simferopol. On 7 June, Russian FSB officers raided Fr Feognost Pushkov's home in occupied Luhansk Region with a court-ordered search. Officials questioned him on 11 June. He was summoned to be added to the military register.

4 June 2024

OCCUPIED UKRAINE: After year in detention, Orthodox priest's "espionage" trial imminent

After a year in Russian detention, the "espionage" criminal trial of Ukrainian Orthodox priest Kostiantyn Maksimov is due to begin on 6 June. If convicted, the 41-year-old faces prison of 10 to 12 years. He is being held in Investigation Prison No. 2 in Simferopol. A Protestant in her fifties also faces criminal trial in occupied Zaporizhzhia Region. Eighteen months after Russian occupiers disappeared two Greek Catholic priests - Ivan Levytsky and Bohdan Heleta – they appear to be in a labour camp in Horlivka.

10 May 2024

OCCUPIED UKRAINE: Protestant woman on trial for Melitopol prayer meeting?

In early 2024, Russian occupation forces arrested a Protestant in her fifties for participating in a July 2023 prayer meeting in the occupied Ukrainian city of Melitopol. Prosecutors handed her criminal case to Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia Regional Court. In the same court is the criminal case against Ukrainian Orthodox Church priest Kostiantyn Maksimov for alleged "espionage". On 27 April, Krasnodon's Russian-controlled court fined Pastor Vladimir Rytikov 5,000 Russian Roubles on charges of "illegal missionary activity" for leading his unregistered Baptist congregation. "This is half my [monthly] pension," he noted.

30 April 2024

UKRAINE: Two new conscientious objector jail terms

In late March a Lviv Region court sentenced Protestant conscientious objector Serhy Stadnitsky to a 3-year jail term for refusing mobilisation on grounds of conscience. "I don't want to kill people," he told Forum 18, adding that "of course" he would be willing to perform alternative civilian service. Two days later, a Sumy Region court handed a Jehovah's Witness a similar sentence. Both are due to go to prison if their appeals fail. The one known prisoner, Dmytro Zelinsky, awaits a Supreme Court appeal on 13 June.

12 April 2024

OCCUPIED UKRAINE: Deported priests now in Ukraine

In February and March, Russia illegally deported two Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) priests - Fr Khristofor Khrimli and Fr Andri Chui – to Georgia. Both priests were arrested and fined by occupation forces in September 2023, and then illegally taken to Russia. Elsewhere in occupied Ukraine, after an armed raid on the Sunday morning worship meeting of Krasnodon's Council of Churches Baptist congregation, Baptist Pastor and Soviet-era prisoner of conscience Vladimir Rytikov faces illegal Russian charges of "conducting missionary activity".