Christian leaders ‘killed, tortured and disappeared’ in occupied Ukraine

Mar 26, 2024 by Jill

by Victoria Pearson, Christian Today:

Christian leaders are being “killed, tortured and disappeared” in parts of Ukraine that are occupied by Russia, a Christian religious freedom charity has said.

Paul Robinson, CEO of Release International, said, “As President Putin begins his fifth term our partners describe growing pressure on the Church.”

Partners report that in February, 59-year-old Ukrainian Orthodox priest, Stepan Podolchak, was found dead in the streets of Kalanchak, in Russian-occupied Kherson, his body showing signs of torture.

The tragic discovery was made two days after he was seized and hauled away by what is believed to have been operatives belonging to the Russian Interior Ministry’s Centre for Countering Extremism.

Forum 18 reports that prior to his abduction and murder, he had resisted pressure to leave the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and join the Moscow Patriarchate.

“Increasingly, denominations other than President Putin’s Russian Orthodox are being regarded as extremists,” said Release International.

Podolchak is not the only Christian to have suffered this fate after Anatoly Prokopchuk, a Pentecostal deacon, and his 19-year-old son son Aleksandr, were kidnapped, mutilated and shot in Kherson last November.

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