The stories of religious persecution are as varied as they are devastating. From a Protestant minister imprisoned because he is an American citizen, to an Orthodox Bishop who was pressured to embrace “Russian World,” and an evangelical church that was closed after it housed the displaced.
Three Ukrainian religious figures, who were at odds with the Russian invaders’ worldview, suffered great hardship and danger during the Russian occupation. After being subjected to threats, coercion and interrogations, they were forced to leave their homes and communities to seek refuge in other countries. They were fortunate to escape safely, and can now share the grim realities that exist under Russian control.
A Protestant pastor is imprisoned and under pressure to endorse Russian occupation
Dmytro was put in a difficult situation. He could either use his church, in Melitopol in Zaporizhzhia Oblast as a propaganda mouthpiece to the Russian occupation forces who took it over in 2022, or he could leave his hometown, in the southeast Ukraine, where he had been born, and become a pastor of Word of Life Evangelical Church. After death threats, an interrogation, and an arrest he chose to leave his hometown in southeastern Ukraine. His former church building is now a police station, without the crosses.
All confessions that refuse the Russian line will suffer the same fate: Only the Russian Orthodox church is allowed.
Dmytro’s second flight from Russian occupiers occurred in 2014. In 2014, after Russia annexed Crimea he was expelled from that peninsula where he had lived with his family. Dmytro’s American citizenship, which he obtained while living in the USA, before returning to Ukraine to be a pastor was incompatible with Russian occupiers.
Eight years later, Russian occupiers found him in Melitopol.
The pastor is arrested and the war begins in full force
Melitopol, a town in south-eastern Ukraine, was hit by Russian missiles at dawn on 24 February 2022. It had a military transportation airport. As Russia sought to build a landbridge into Crimea, fighting broke out. Melitopol fell the next day. Some of its residents fled to Ukraine-controlled territory; others stayed and some moved to Word of Life Church, where Dmytro served as a pastor.
The church provided food and shelter. Dmytro wished to support and help people in the church as long as he could.
The Ukrainians who remained behind felt more pressure as the Russians consolidated their power in Melitopol. Dmytro wasn’t an exception. He was arrested on 19th March, only 23 days after the war began.
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