Russia weaponizing religion in temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine - ISW

Russian occupation authorities are likely conducting a campaign of systematic religious persecution in occupied Ukraine.

That's according to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Ukrinform reports.

Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 Russian soldiers or occupation authorities have reportedly committed at least 76 acts of religious persecution in Ukraine.

According to ISW analysts,  Russian authorities have closed, nationalized, or forcefully converted at least 26 places of worship to the Kremlin-controlled Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, killed or seized at least 29 clergy or religious leaders, and looted, desecrated, or deliberately destroyed at least 13 places of worship in occupied Ukraine.

According to the report,  these cases of religious repression are not likely isolated incidents but rather part of a deliberate campaign to systematically eradicate "undesirable" religious organizations in Ukraine and promote the Moscow Patriarchate.

ISW analysts said that Russian occupation officials have been repressing Ukrainian religious communities in proxy republics in eastern Ukraine and in illegally occupied Crimea since 2014.