600 Churches in Ukraine Destroyed by Russian Forces
- Michael Foust Crosswalk Headlines Contributor
- Published Sep 06, 2024
A European and Asian Christian ministry dedicated to spreading the gospel across former Soviet nations asserts in a new report that Russian forces are guilty of religious persecution across Ukraine, having destroyed or damaged at least 600 churches since the 2022 invasion. The "Faith Under Fire" report from Mission Eurasia says the majority of destruction of and damage to churches is from missiles, drones, and artillery strikes, although religious structures also have been "deliberately looted by Russian soldiers" and "closed or repurposed into administrative buildings by occupation authorities." Russian forces also have seized churches to use as military bases or to conceal firing positions, the report says.
"New reports concerning Russian soldiers seizing or looting yet another church or prayer house appear almost every week," it says.
All total, 630 religious structures have been destroyed or damaged, according to the report. More than 600 of those are churches, with 206 of them being evangelical.
Mission Eurasia is a ministry dedicated to training and mobilizing Christian leaders in the 13 countries of the former Soviet Union.
"In Ukraine, there is lots of persecution on behalf of the Russians. When they take over and conquer territories, they basically raze the churches -- they push them out," Sergey N. Rakhuba, president of Mission Eurasia, told Crosswalk Headlines. "They intimidate pastors, ministers, priests, church leaders and basically push everybody out of that area."
Prior to the Russian invasion, he added, Ukrainian Christians enjoyed religious liberty.
"I don't know of any other country surrounding Ukraine where there is more religious freedom," he said. "The Ukrainian government especially promotes religious freedom, giving all believers -- every single church tradition and faith tradition -- equal rights to worship the way they want."
Rakhuba has lived in both Ukraine and Russia. The difference in religious liberties between the two countries, he said, is dramatic.
"We had to move out of Moscow because of the pressures and persecutions," he said. "Every single foreign missionary organization that had any foreign affiliation was kicked out of Russia. Where did they move? They all mostly moved to Ukraine because they wanted to stay in the same region -- and Ukraine, with open arms, welcomed them."
The Russian Orthodox Church, Mission Eurasia says, has "come to function more as a cultural-political arm of the government rather than a spiritual institution" in Russia.
Ukraine, he said, needs prayer.
"I want Christians in America to continue praying," he said, "that God gives victory to Ukraine so that they can defend their freedom, their freedom to worship, their independence, and their sovereignty."
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Oleg Spiridonov
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
