Ukraine: Reprisals against evangelical Christians
According to information from the German missionary organization "Licht im Osten", Protestant Christians are increasingly being subjected to repression by the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Many Baptists would have to leave their homes, their church buildings would be confiscated, services would be banned, said "Licht im Osten" director Joachim Lange. Some Christians were even killed. In Donetsk, a Christian university was occupied by the separatists. In addition, militants in the city destroyed a non-denominational prayer tent.
After taking the former rebel stronghold of Slavyansk, investigators discovered the bodies of two Pentecostal deacons and two adult children of one of the ministers. Fighters from the "Donetsk People's Republic" captured the four during a church service on June 8, said the leading bishop of the Pentecostal Church, Mykhailo Panochko. The insurgents accused the clergy of supporting the Ukrainian army. An adviser to Ukraine's interior minister said the clergy were tortured and murdered on June 9. The perpetrators, who were said to be separatists, put their victims in a car and set it on fire with a grenade launcher to cover up all traces and present their murder as an act of Ukrainian soldiers. The remains were then buried in a mass grave with two dozen other victims on the grounds of the Slavyansk Children's Hospital.
In view of the violence and persecution of evangelical Christians in eastern Ukraine, nine Protestant churches and free churches in Ukraine appealed to the international community on July 8: "Since the emergence of separatist movements in eastern Ukraine and the proclamation of the so-called In the 'People's Republics' of Donetsk and Luhansk, Protestant Christians in particular are noticeably exposed to religious persecution. Targeted attacks by armed militants against Protestant Christians are accompanied by hostage-taking, beatings, torture, death threats, destruction and occupation of house churches and social facilities, property crime, etc.
From May to June 2014, Protestant pastors and preachers were arrested and beaten in Slavyansk, Gorlovka, Donetsk and Druzhkivka. The terrorists of the two so-called 'People's Republics' not only hinder the religious activities of the Protestant Christians, they also occupy their places of worship in order to set up their own headquarters, weapons depots or hospitals there [...]. What's more, on June 14, Pastor Sergei Skorobagach of the Church of Renewal and local chairman of the Council of Churches in Mariupol was assassinated.
The Council of the Evangelical Protestant Churches of Ukraine condemns any persecution of religion and discrimination against believers, regardless of the motives. Intolerance and hostility based on religion are alien to Ukrainian society, in which more than 50 faith communities have been living and working together peacefully for over 20 years. Freedom of belief is an achievement of independent Ukraine, thanks to which there is interreligious peace and harmony in our country.
We call on the international community, in particular the monitoring missions of the UN, OSCE, the Council of Europe and the EU, to do everything possible to curb the ongoing and escalating religious intolerance in eastern Ukraine, which is occupied by armed separatists. We are convinced that world opinion must condemn the suppression of religious freedom in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which has now gone so far that dissenters are being physically harassed and Protestant Christians are in mortal danger."