Voice of Ukraine

From Ira Kapitonova in Kyiv (Day 412):

For the righteous will never be moved;
he will be remembered forever.
He is not afraid of bad news;
his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.
His heart is steady; he will not be afraid,
until he looks in triumph on his adversaries.
Psalm 112:6-8

I wish I could say I am not afraid of bad news. While I do my best to trust the Lord, my heart is heavy today. Tonight, there was a report of yet another cruel execution of a Ukrainian POW. Even the most weathered military experts say they were shocked by the cruelty and didn’t recommend reading detailed reports about it. When, Lord, when will you stop this wickedness?

At the same time, this wickedness does not surprise me. While Russia keeps spreading lies about religious oppression in Ukraine (if you’ve heard such reports, beware of the influence of Russian propaganda), it has shown no respect for religion in the occupied areas. The US Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has published a report on religious persecution in the occupied territories. ISW states that religious persecutions are part of an ongoing Russian cultural genocide and ethnic cleansing campaign. If you are interested in the state of spiritual life in Ukraine, I highly recommend reading the full report (https://bit.ly/41mHllg). Meanwhile, I will share only some of the numbers.

The report speaks about at least 76 acts of religious persecution – Russian authorities have closed at least 26 places of worship, killed or seized at least 29 religious leaders, and desecrated or deliberately destroyed at least 13 places of worship in occupied Ukraine. And these numbers are limited by the scope of the study and do not include unintentional damage (according to the Kyiv-based Institute for Religious Freedom, 494 religious buildings have been wholly destroyed in the first 12 months of the full-scale invasion).

Oppression of religious liberty is part of Russian state policy. In 2016, they passed a law requiring all religious organizations and churches in Russia to be registered with the government. It also banned all “missionary activities” under the pretext of national security. The same policies have been imposed on the occupied territories. In May 2015, the occupational authorities of the Donetsk region said that Ukrainian Orthodox Church members, Greek Catholics, and Evangelical Christians were “sectarians” and had to be eradicated. We know churches that had to go underground to keep meeting in the occupied territories.

The ISW concludes that religious freedom is far better defended in Ukrainian-controlled territories than in Russia or Russian-occupied Ukrainian lands, which emphasizes the need to support Ukraine in its fight for freedom.

When you see someone fighting so fiercely against religious freedom, you know they are afraid of the people discovering the true freedom found in Christ. So no wonder there’s been so many atrocities and brutality – that’s what’s left of humanity when you get rid of God.