Source: www.forum18.org
Date: October 24, 2023
https://www.forum18.org/archiv
By Felix Corley, Forum 18
On 22 September, Telmanovo District Court in Russian-occupied Donetsk
Region found two priests of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine guilty of
violating Russian law on missionary activity. The Judge punished Fr
Khristofor Khrimli and Fr Andri Chui each with a fine of 30,000 Russian
Roubles and "deportation beyond the bounds of the Russian Federation", a
court official told Forum 18. Fr Andri has appealed against his punishment.
Both priests are Ukrainian citizens.
Fr Khristofor and Fr Andri "carried out religious activity posing as
representatives of the religious association the Orthodox Church of
Ukraine, whose activity is of an anti-Russian, extremist nature, expressed
in public support for the Ukrainian authorities and armed formations of
Ukraine, as well as inciting hatred and discord on an ethnic and religious
basis", the Russian news agency RIA Novosti quoted the court decisions as
declaring (see below).
The court official – who did not give her name – refused to say whether
the head of Telmanovo District Court, Judge Nikolai Boiko, heard the cases
(see below).
"Fr Khristofor is a good and very decent man. He was constantly in fasting
and prayer. But some people didn't like this," his Bishop, Metropolitan
Serhy (Horobtsov) of Donetsk and Mariupol, noted after the Russian
occupation forces detained the two priests in mid-September. "All the time
Father Andri tried to help the needy and disadvantaged, he was constantly
in prayer for his parishioners" (see below).
Metropolitan Serhy said Russian occupation officials had earlier tried to
pressure the priests to transfer from the Orthodox Church of Ukraine to the
Russian Orthodox Church (see below).
Russian occupation forces try to pressure religious leaders to change their
affiliation to communities based in Russia and which support Russia's war
against Ukraine. Ukrainian Orthodox Church priest Fr Vladimir Saviisky of
St Nicholas Church in Primorsk faced pressure to join calls in April for
the transfer of the Berdyansk Diocese from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
under the Moscow Patriarchate to come directly under the Russian Orthodox
Church (see below).
Russian soldiers "drove me around the city, demanding that I accept this
decision of the Moscow Synod that the Berdyansk Diocese had now transferred
to the Russian Orthodox Church," Fr Vladimir told Current Time. "I said
that I remain a priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, I am a Ukrainian
priest." He fled the Russian-occupied part of Zaporizhzhia Region in June
(see below).
On 18 August, Russian military raided a Council of Churches Baptist youth
camp in Rainivka close to the Black Sea coast in Zaporizhzhia Region. A
local administration official and a soldier told the home owner later that
they intend to base Russian soldiers in the house (see below).
On 8 October, armed and masked men in military uniform raided the Sunday
meeting for worship of the Council of Churches Baptist congregation in
Melitopol, which has close ties with the Rainivka congregation. Officials
later asked Pastor Dmitry Malakhov when he joined the church, when he
became its pastor, who else preaches to the congregation and where the
church gets copies of the Baptist newspaper "Do you believe?"
Officials told Pastor Malakhov they were preparing a record of an offence
and said this would be handed to the Prosecutor's Office. They warned him
the police would summon him and he would then face a court and a fine of
10,000 Russian Roubles. They added that until they get Russian
registration, the church cannot meet (see below).
Forum 18 could not find out why the Russian occupation authorities raided
the Baptist churches in Rainivka and Melitopol, and why they threatened the
pastor in Melitopol with prosecution and banned the church from meeting for
worship. Artyom Sharlay, the head of the Russian occupiers' Religious
Organisations Department at Zaporizhzhia Regional Administration's Social
and Political Communications and Information Policy Department, did not
answer his phone (see below).
The man who answered the phone at a Russian military centre in Melitopol
– who did not give his name – denied to Forum 18 that any soldiers of
the Russian army had taken part in the 18 August or 8 October raids on the
Baptist communities (see below).
On 23 October, Russian occupation forces seized the Central Baptist Church
in Melitopol, a congregation of the Baptist Union. "The church held its
Sunday worship service on 22 October. But officials came on Monday and told
them that until the church is registered under Russian law it cannot
function," Baptists told Forum 18. "They closed and sealed the church" (see
below).
Donetsk Region: Two Orthodox priests detained, fined, ordered "deported"
On 17 September, the Russian occupation authorities in Donetsk Region
seized Fr Khristofor Khrimli. The following day they seized Fr Andri Chui.
Both are priests of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and are Ukrainian
citizens. Fr Khristofor served at Holy Trinity parish in the village of
Andriivka as well as the Resurrection of the Lord parish in Kamyanka. Fr
Andri served in Donetsk.
"Fr Khristofor is a good and very decent man. He was constantly in fasting
and prayer. But some people didn't like this," his Bishop, Metropolitan
Serhy (Horobtsov) of Donetsk and Mariupol, noted on Facebook. "All the time
Father Andri tried to help the needy and disadvantaged, he was constantly
in prayer for his parishioners."
Russian officials appear to have taken the two priests to the Investigation
Prison in Donetsk, Metropolitan Serhy told Novosti Donbassa news website on
3 October. He said relatives had been able to hand in medicines, clothes
and food to them there.
Metropolitan Serhy said Russian occupation officials had tried to pressure
the priests to transfer from the Orthodox Church of Ukraine to the Russian
Orthodox Church.
Russian occupation officials have similarly pressured other religious
leaders to transfer to different religious communities which the occupation
authorities regard more favourably (see below).
Cases against both priests were prepared under Russian Administrative Code
Article 5.26, Part 5 ("Foreigners conducting missionary activity"
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
of 30,000 to 50,000 Russian Roubles with the possibility of deportation. A
fine of 50,000 Russian Roubles represents more than two months' average
local wages for those in work.
The cases were handed to the District Court in Telmanovo (which Ukraine has
renamed Boikivske), in the District where Fr Khristofor was serving.
In separate hearings on the afternoon of 22 September, a Judge at Telmanovo
District Court found Fr Khristofor (under his secular name Vyacheslav
Khrimli) and Fr Andri guilty. The Judge punished Fr Khristofor and Fr Andri
each with a fine of 30,000 Russian Roubles and "deportation beyond the
bounds of the Russian Federation", a court official told Forum 18 on 24
October.
The official – who did not give her name – refused to say whether the
head of the court, Judge Nikolai Boiko, heard the cases.
According to the Russian news agency RIA Novosti on 3 October, the court
decisions said that Fr Khristofor and Fr Andri "carried out religious
activity posing as representatives of the religious association the
Orthodox Church of Ukraine, whose activity is of an anti-Russian, extremist
nature, expressed in public support for the Ukrainian authorities and armed
formations of Ukraine, as well as inciting hatred and discord on an ethnic
and religious basis".
The court official said that only Fr Andri had appealed against the
decision. "Any appeal goes directly to the Supreme Court in Moscow," she
told Forum 18. She refused to say whether Fr Khristofor had had time to
lodge an appeal before being deported.
"The organisation under the name the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) was
formed by schismatics, and is therefore not a church in the canonical
understanding," RIA Novosti declared in its report on the cases. It did not
say if this was its view or whether it was quoting the court decisions.
Metropolitan Serhy said relatives taking items to the prison for Fr
Khristofor and Fr Andri were told they were no longer there. "Then they
sent information that they had been taken to the Russian Federation," told
Novosti Donbassa news website on 3 October. He said the diocese had no
contact with them.
Religious figures held for days, weeks, months
Russian occupation forces have seized religious leaders of a variety of
faiths since their renewed invasion of Ukraine from February 2022. Greek
Catholic priests Fr Ivan Levytsky and Fr Bohdan Heleta were disappeared in
November 2022, and Ukrainian Orthodox Church priest Fr Kostiantyn Maksimov
in May 2023. No news has been heard of their fate
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
It remains unclear in many of the cases whether the seizure of religious
leaders aimed to punish them for their exercise of freedom of religion or
belief in ways the Russian occupation authorities did not like. However,
all those seized were known to play a leading role in their own religious
community.
Some leaders were released after days, weeks or even months in Russian
custody, such as Leonid Ponomaryov, Pastor of a Baptist Council of Churches
congregation in Mariupol, and his wife Tatyana who were held from 21
September to 21 October 2022
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
While in Russian custody, some of the seized religious leaders were
subjected to torture. These include Imam Rustem Asanov
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
the Birlik (Unity) Mosque in the village of Shchastlivtseve in Henichesk
District in Ukraine's Kherson Region.
Zaporizhzhia Region: Pressure to back community affiliation change
Russian occupation forces try to pressure religious leaders to change their
affiliation to communities based in Russia and which support Russia's war
against Ukraine.
Russian occupation officials tried to pressure Imam Rustem Asanov, a
Crimean Tatar, of the Birlik (Unity) Mosque in the village of
Shchastlivtseve in Henichesk District in Ukraine's Kherson Region While
they held and tortured him in March 2022, a man Imam Asanov suspects was
from the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) insisted that he cut the
community's ties to the Muslim Spiritual Administration in Kyiv
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
mosque community to the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Crimea in
the occupied Ukrainian city of Simferopol
Ukrainian Orthodox Church priest Fr Vladimir Saviisky was priest of St
Nicholas Church in Primorsk, a town on the Azov Sea in Ukraine's
Zaporizhzhia Region which Russian occupation forces seized in late February
2022. He complained that they came into his church with automatic weapons
and interrupted services, and on another occasion up to eight armed
military personnel in balaclavas searched the yard, his home and the
basement.
Fr Vladimir said the Russian occupation forces did not beat him. "Although
they themselves admitted to me that in Kherson, they shaved the heads of
priests and handcuffed them to their beds for five or six days."
Throughout 2022, Fr Vladimir continued to lead prayers in church for
Ukraine, he told Current Time (https://www.currenttime.tv/a/
for a 4 July 2023 feature. On 31 December 2022, as Fr Vladimir was at his
church ready to start a prayer service for Ukraine, Russian occupation
officials prevented him from doing so.
"Armed men pulled me out from behind the altar and forced me to take off my
vestments," Fr Vladimir told Current Time. "The interrogation lasted five
hours. They stripped me to the waist, they looked for tattoos - a trident
or some kind of Ukrainian symbol. They searched my house, took away the
computer, and took away the phones. This was my first arrest."
Russian occupation officials asked Fr Vladimir why he did not cooperate
with them. During further arrests, "they said they wanted to know what
opinions people have and what they confess. Of course I refused to do that,
I didn't write denunciations .. They wanted me to write who came and what
they wanted."
Fr Vladimir said parish life became more difficult in 2023. Russian
occupation forces pressured him to join calls in April 2023 for the
transfer of the Berdyansk Diocese from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under
the Moscow Patriarchate to come directly under the Russian Orthodox Church.
Russian occupation officials "arrived in Primorsk District, gathered the
priests and, in the presence of FSB representatives, read out a very
shameful, very vile letter. It said that people were happy that the Russian
army had arrived. I spoke out categorically against it, saying that this
was a betrayal not only of the Church, but also of the Motherland. I
refused to sign."
The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church approved the transfer of the
Diocese on 16 May. This meant Fr Vladimir and other clergy should no longer
commemorate in the liturgy the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,
Metropolitan Onufry (Berezovsky).
Russian occupation forces "banned us from serving in the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church," Fr Vladimir told Current Time. "They told us: 'Commemorate only
the patriarch [Kirill] and the new bishop whom Moscow sent, cooperate with
the authorities - and everything will be fine with you, manna will fall
from heaven.' They asked us to tell the people in the church to stop
resisting and start thinking differently."
Fr Vladimir complained of constant pressure. "The seventh time such an
'interrogation' occurred was when I refused to sign a petition to transfer
to the Russian Orthodox Church."
Later in May, Russian soldiers came to Fr Vladimir's home at 11 pm, telling
him: "Take off your cross and cassock." Fr Vladimir refused. "They drove me
around the city, demanding that I accept this decision of the Moscow Synod
that the Berdyansk Diocese had now transferred to the Russian Orthodox
Church. I said that I remain a priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, I
am a Ukrainian priest. I have a Metropolitan in Kyiv - His Beatitude
Onufry."
After people warned Fr Vladimir that he faced being stripped of his
priestly office and then jailed for his pro-Ukrainian views, he reluctantly
decided to flee to Ukrainian government-controlled territory. He left
Primorsk on 1 June, driving through Russia before being able to cross the
border into Estonia on the second attempt.
Forum 18 could not find out why the Russian occupation authorities are
trying to pressure religious leaders to change their affiliation. Artyom
Sharlay, the head of the Russian occupiers' Religious Organisations
Department at Zaporizhzhia Regional Administration's Social and Political
Communications and Information Policy Department, did not answer his phone
each time Forum 18 called between 17 and 24 October.
Zaporizhzhia Region: Russian military raid Baptist youth camp, Baptist
church
On 18 August, Russian military raided a Council of Churches Baptist youth
camp in the village of Rainivka close to the Black Sea coast in
Zaporizhzhia Region. The camp – which was scheduled to last from 16 to 19
August – was for young people from the areas of Ukraine under Russian
occupation. It was held in the garden of a house local Baptists bought in
the late 1990s and renovated as a church building.
"Without identifying themselves, they checked identity documents of
everyone present, inspected the site, and questioned the church members in
charge and the home owner," church leaders in nearby Melitopol noted on 26
August.
Russian police returned on 21 August to question the home owner. They
photographed the ownership documents for the house.
A local administration official and a soldier arrived on 24 August to tell
the home owner that they intended to base Russian soldiers in the house.
Meanwhile, on 8 October, armed and masked men in military uniform raided
the Sunday meeting for worship of the Council of Churches Baptist
congregation in Melitopol, which has close ties with the Rainivka
congregation. Several men in civilian clothes accompanied the armed men,
bringing the total number of raiders to about 20.
"Soldiers in masks entered the hall and, without identifying themselves,
ordered everyone to leave the building, and then began inspecting the
house," church leaders noted on 21 October. They inspected all the rooms,
including in cupboards. They seized several CDs, two video surveillance
recordings, and one copy of each piece of literature.
"They checked church members' documents and their telephones, and inspected
cars," church members added. "They photographed everyone who remained and
started to summon some for interrogation." Those summoned for interrogation
included the three owners of the church building, Pastor Dmitry Malakhov,
Maksim Porokhnya and Vera Pashko. Officials seized their telephones.
After examining the house ownership documents, officials told them that
they were in order. They then asked why the church is not registered with
the Russian occupation authorities. Pastor Malakhov responded that the
church is a member of the Council of Churches, where a church assembly
takes any decision on registration, while the law allows religious
communities the right to hold meetings without registration. Officials then
asked about links with acquaintances and fellow-believers in
government-held areas of Ukraine.
The officials also asked how the church collects money and on what money
the church was built in the village of Rainivka where meetings for worship
and summer camps are held.
Officials asked Pastor Malakhov many other questions, including when he
joined the church, when he became its pastor, who else preaches to the
congregation and where the church gets copies of the Baptist newspaper "Do
you believe?" Officials told him they were preparing a record of an offence
and said this would be handed to the Prosecutor's Office.
The Russian soldiers then took Pastor Malakhov back to his home, where they
seized two computers for inspection. They warned him the police would
summon him and he would then face a court and a fine of 10,000 Russian
Roubles. They added that until they get Russian registration, the church
cannot meet.
Forum 18 could not find out why the Russian occupation authorities raided
the Baptist churches in Rainivka and Melitopol, and why they threatened the
pastor in Melitopol with prosecution and banned the church from meeting for
worship. Artyom Sharlay, the head of the Russian occupiers' Religious
Organisations Department at Zaporizhzhia Regional Administration's Social
and Political Communications and Information Policy Department, did not
answer his phone each time Forum 18 called between 17 and 24 October.
The man who answered the phone at a Russian military centre in Melitopol on
24 October – who did not give his name – denied to Forum 18 that any
soldiers of the Russian army had taken part in the 18 August or 8 October
raids on the Baptist communities. He then put the phone down.
The telephone at the Russian Melitopol city police went unanswered each
time Forum 18 called on 24 October.
The woman who answered the phone on 24 October at the Russian Zaporizhzhia
Region Prosecutor's Office in Melitopol – who did not give her name –
refused to put Forum 18 through to any prosecutor who might be handling any
case against Pastor Malakhov. She also refused to give any phone number for
Melitopol city Prosecutor's Office, saying they have only personal
telephones.
Zaporizhzhia Region: Russian occupation forces seize Melitopol's Baptist
Union church
On 23 October, Russian occupation forces seized the Central Baptist Church
in Melitopol, a congregation of the Baptist Union. "The church held its
Sunday worship service on 22 October. But officials came on Monday and told
them that until the church is registered under Russian law it cannot
function," Baptists told Forum 18 the following day. "They closed and
sealed the church." This was the last Baptist Union church in the city
which was able to hold meetings for worship.
"The officials were very polite and tried to act 'correctly'," Baptists
added. They said Russian occupation officials had warned the Church earlier
that it would not be allowed to function unless it gained Russian
registration.
Sharlay of the Russian occupiers' Zaporizhzia Religious Organisations
Department insisted to Forum 18 on 12 October
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
"law-abiding" religious communities are allowed to exist in the parts of
the Ukrainian region the occupiers control.
Russian occupation forces have seized numerous places of worship from a
variety of religious communities
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Region and other parts of Russian-occupied Ukraine. Among the churches
closed in Melitopol was Grace Baptist Church, on the facade of which the
occupation forces then
https://www.forum18.org/archiv
Russian soldiers.
Since the illegal imposition of Russian law on occupied Ukrainian territory
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Russian officials insist that religious communities must register under
Russian law (https://www.forum18.org/archi
continue to be allowed to exist. However, Russian tax authorities have
registered only eight religious communities in the occupied part of
Zaporizhzhia Region, the Russian Orthodox Berdyansk Diocese, six parishes
of the Russian Orthodox Diocese, and a Protestant church. (END)
Full reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Occupied
Ukraine
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
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