Religious freedom severely restricted in eastern Ukraine
The organisation Forum 18 has been monitoring the human rights of Christians and other religious communities in the area of eastern Europe, and they recently published a survey on the situation in the Luhansk region in Ukraine. They state that freedom of religion is severely restricted in the rebel zone occupied by the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), which makes up a third of the Luhansk region.
In this area, all Protestant and non-Moscow Patriarchate Orthodox communities are rendered illegal, there are repeated denials of permission to a Catholic priest to live in the region, Evangelical and Catholic literature is being banned and there is an overall fear about discussing these — among other — human rights violations.
“All human rights including the freedom of religion and belief are severely restricted in the rebel self-declared Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), which currently (February 2022) controls about a third of Ukraine’s Luhansk Region.” reads the report by Forum 18.
Since 2018, the LPR has imposed a restrictive Religion Law, which has made it mandatory for religious communities that were already registered under Ukrainian law to re-register.
This law made it illegal for any religious association to exist without gaining the rebel permission to exist, which made it impossible for Protestant and non-Moscow Patriarchate Orthodox communities to exist legally. Forum 18 also reports punishments for “illegal” worship meetings.
Source: intoleranceagainstchristians.eu
