Tortured in Ukraine: Christians Living a Nightmare

CBN ^ | 9/19/2014

[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

EASTERN UKRAINE -- Ukraine's evangelical Christians are bearing the brunt of the country's conflict, often with deadly consequences.

It's a scene that has played in Elena Velichko's head over and over. Pro-Russian rebels took over her hometown in early April. Her husband Vladimir told her to take the kids and leave the city.

"He took us to the train station and we said goodbye. He said, 'I love you.' He kissed me and kissed the children and left," Elena said.

Several days later, her life and that of her eight children, ages 2 to 16, suddenly turned upside down.

Surreal Reality

It was June 8, Pentecost Sunday. The church was half empty. That's because the city was under tremendous assault by both the pro-Russian separatists and the Ukrainian army.

Once the church service ended everybody made their way to the front of the church to go home.

But then the unimaginable happened.

"The church called and said my husband, along with three other believers, had been taken by men who were waiting outside the church," Elena said.

Alexander Gayvoronski, a church deacon, was there that Sunday morning.

"The men wore masks and had machine guns. They told the four Christian men to get into their cars," Gayvoronsi said.

The rebels took the pastor's sons, Ruvim and Albert Pavenko, Victor Brodarsky, and Elena's husband, Vladimir.

Multiple sources told CBN News what then happened to the four Christian captives.

First rebels took them outside the city and tortured them. The next day the men were put in car and told to drive away.

Then, minutes later they were recaptured and shot multiple times. Elena's husband was burned in the car.

snip...

That same day rebels burned down the largest furniture factory that belonged to Ruvim and Albert Pavenko's father.

It had become clear rebels were targeting the city's evangelical community.

Snip...

Sergey Demidovich, a top evangelical leader in Slavyansk, said Christians face constant threat.

"I never thought in the 21st century, in [a] free country as Ukraine, it was possible to experience this level of persecution," Demidovich said. "The separatists saw Protestant Christians as enemies. They viewed us as cults."

But the persecution was just getting started.

"All the Protestant churches in the city were either taken over by rebels or forced to close. We were forbidden to meet for services and the leadership forced to leave or be under risk of arrest," Demidovich said.

And the persecution is spreading far beyond just this city. Throughout the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as rebels gain more territory, assaults against evangelicals are growing.

snip...

"When I was in prison, a rebel soldier told me they have an order to kill all the Christian pastors who are not part of the Russian Orthodox Church," Anatoly, a pastor from Luhansk, said.

[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

[SoFloFreeper]

Prayers up for them.

[Wyrd bið ful aræd]

The Russians are cracking down on pretty much everyone who isn't Russian Orthodox. In the Crimea they've repossessed the majority of churches for use by the Russian Orthodox Church, or so I've read.

Another thing that Pope Francis with all his talk of unity just doesn't understand -- The Russians hate everybody who isn't a member of their state-sponsored Church.

[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

The Russians are cracking down on pretty much everyone who isn't Russian Orthodox. In the Crimea they've repossessed the majority of churches for use by the Russian Orthodox Church, or so I've read.

I've seen this happen also in Russia proper. A German Church for example was being rebuilt, and the Russian governor of the region seized it for the ROC. The ROC proceeded to even dig up the graves of the dead and left the bones scattered across the property. They used a memorial plaque as a top for a dog house.

These are the type of barbarians we are dealing with.

[darkangel82]

The Russian church has been that way since the Czarist era. Makes you wonder how “orthodox” they really are.

[Zhang Fei]

Amusing comment from an internet poster:

Soviet era joke (anecdote, as Russians say):

Armenian Radio: Why did Lenin wear shoes and Stalin wore boots?

We reply: The sh)t was a lot deeper during Stalin's time.

The new Russian fashion is to wear knee length boots now.

My Russian wife reads me Russian newspapers with articles about Russia and Russian reactions towards the West, especially America. This past summer, Russian articles claimed that Europe and America would be hurt by sanctions, not Russia. Russia would become stronger, the West weaker. The dollar would collapse. Russia would turn off the gas and Europe would cave in. They showed a lot of bravado, back then.

Only now that the ruble is collapsing, the price of oil is tanking and sanctions are hurting Russian companies, Russia is talking about patriotism. There was even a picture in Argumenti y Facti of a Russian with a sack of potatoes over his shoulder, with the caption reading, “We can make do with less! Russians have always heeded the call to show their
patriotism and do with less when the country needs it!”

Putin and the propaganda machine are now evoking pictures of the Great Patriotic War and the need to sacrifice for the good of the state. He recently even evoked the ghost of HIT(er and blamed Russia’s troubles on the West! Loser people and loser countries always blame their troubles on others, instead of looking for the answer in themselves. As long as
Russia sees America and the West as its enemy, then they will never solve their own political and economic problems and join the first rank of nations. Russia likes to compare itself to America, as if that will raise them to the first rank. Better for Russia to compare itself to Brazil, Argentina and Indonesia.

[HiTech RedNeck]

It’s the promise of Christ that keeps anything at all going amidst such ghastly unholiness. Sooner or later if this nonsense keeps up, the church will be spat out and cease to be a church at all.

[yellowdoghunter]

Yes, prayers up for those who are being persecuted because of Him. The Christians in question are a threat to Putin.

[SunkenCiv]

"I never thought in the 21st century, in [a] free country as Ukraine, it was possible to experience this level of persecution," Demidovich said. "The separatists saw Protestant Christians as enemies. They viewed us as cults." But the persecution was just getting started. "All the Protestant churches in the city were either taken over by rebels or forced to close. We were forbidden to meet for services and the leadership forced to leave or be under risk of arrest," Demidovich said. And the persecution is spreading far beyond just this city. Throughout the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as rebels gain more territory, assaults against evangelicals are growing.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Wyrd, I think Pope Francis is "getting" it --- since the Russians are also physically moving in and taking over Ukrainian Byzantine (Catholic) Churches. It looks like the Moscow Patriarchate guy for "External Relations" (the Orthodox "Secy of State", Metropolitan Hilarion) is publicly backing this violent revanchism.

Hugely disturbing.

[FreedomPoster]

I have heard that the ROC was essentially taken over by the KGB during the Soviet era, and that legacy remains. From this, you can see why Putin would be pushing out everyone but the ROC and using it as a state organ.

Can anyone confirm this?

[Thunder90]

The Eastern Orthodox church and the Russian Orthodox Church are putting distance between themselves. The Russian Orthodox Church is controlled by the FSB and the Russian Government.

[1rudeboy]

Most “state approved” religious institutions were appropriated by the KGB/FSB. In Russia, church goes to you.

[GeronL]

Mad Vlad continues with his Stalinism

[sagar]

But, but, Putin is the defender of Christendom.

[Kozak]

The Russian Orthodox Church is still rotten from the Communist days.

“The head of the Russian Orthodox Church has awarded Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov with an order for “glory and honor.” Patriarch Kirill gave the order to Zyuganov in Moscow on June 27, one day after the longtime communist leader celebrated his 70th birthday.

Kirill said Zyuganov — who in 2010 called for the re-Stalinization of Russia and has called the Soviet Union “the most humane state in human history” — deserves the award as “one of the most famous Russian politicians who has expressed interest in the welfare of the nation and the protection of traditional moral values.”

[Mrs. Don-o]

Take this with a grain of salt because I'm no expert, but the Moscow Patriarchate being KGB seems to have been the common knowledge.

I was for a couple of years pretty close to ROCOR (Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia), the "other" Russian Orthodox church that was NOT aligned with the USSR regime. They organized right after the Bolshevik Revolution and were the full-out resisters, soon exiles. They said that the Moscow Patriarch clergy were effectively Licensed Liturgists for the Ministry of Religion: in other words, state agents.

After the fall of the USSR, these KGB clergy never repented, and were never replaced. Same guys are still there, and their hand-picked, sponsored successors.

Or so I've been told. If I am discrediting without cause, I apologize sincerely and wish to be corrected.

[FreedomPoster]

You appear to be much more of an expert than I, and it all certainly adds up.