Moscow Snuffs Out Religious Liberty in Eastern Ukraine

Ukraine has had a tortured political existence as an independent nation, but it has respected freedom of conscience. In 2014 the Orthodox Church, both the Moscow and the Kiev patriachates, made up more than half of the religious organizations in both Donetsk and Luhansk. But there was an abundance of other faiths and churches. For the first time in decades, people enjoyed liberty in faith.

However, that changed when the separatists took control. They sought to eliminate dissent, any hint of backing for the Kiev government. And they claimed that the Russian Orthodox Church had been oppressed, encouraging creation of an Orthodox state. The end result is that “most churches and faith-based communities in the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, with the exception of Orthodox parishes of the Moscow Patriarchate, are now forced to cease their religious activities or to significantly restrict them and to act in the underground.”

The persecution could hardly be worse. Houses of worship have been seized. Street gatherings are banned. Identification as a believer leads to additional punishment. Public evangelism is impossible. Literature cannot be distributed. Participation in common public activities, including hospital and prison chaplaincies, is barred.

The IRF found that abuses began as soon as pro-Russian separatists took control in April 2014. Anti-Semitic pamphlets first appeared. Then came “kidnapping and illegal imprisonment, emotional abuse, physical torture and even murders of unwelcome clergymen and believers of ‘non-traditional denominations.’” The result is “a real nightmare for local religious communities that did not experience such persecution even during the Soviet terror times. This was also accompanied by the seizure of churches and houses of worship, some of which were used as firing positions and barracks for militants, mercenaries and regular Russian troops

It turns out that your understanding comes from being an armchair warrior on FR, making stuff up out of thin air, and then insisting you know for sure it is true.
And that anyone who disbelieves you is an agent or denying the truth because you saw it written down somewhere.
Just like how all those people skeptical of the mueller investigation were suspect agents, nice discussion technique.
I walked through a gulag museum in Russia. They didn’t downplay anything. They go into fine detail about killing of Christians. There is a functioning Christian monastery with services at the gulag. There are tours of all the sites and multilanguage guides.
There is a lot of ‘contrarian’ sympathy for Stalin in both Russia and Ukraine. Some people will say they demonize him because they are against all things soviet, and they actually miss aspects of soviet times (order, pension, whatever). I have heard people in Ukraine say outrageous things like that the people killed were corrupt and needed to be killed. As if they can judge even one person enough to say they deserve death, let alone millions.
There is a big statue of a communist on hill next to monastery i visit in ukraine. The taxi driver thinks it is strange I want to go monastery, but points at statue and says what a great man he was.
There are a lot of people who a communist and not christian. Some people are just nominally christian cause it is a national identity thing. But then the same thing with their communism, some don’t really know it but just like ancestors/history. Or maybe their school/family/govt taught that. There is a lot of brainwashing everywhere and we are doomed to repeat mistakes of history we don’t know

Nice rant Mount Athos...worth repeating.

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