Ukraine: Christians Are Being Tortured, Expelled by Russian Forces, Church Leaders Say
(Worthy News) – Amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces have violently persecuted Ukrainian Christians by torturing them and removing them from their positions, a group of church leaders and rights advocates have told United States Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson.
The letter to Johnson is dated April 8 and is signed by Dr Richard Land, former commissioner for the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, Yaroslav Pyzh, president of Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary, Valerii Antoniu, president of The Baptist Union of Ukraine, and Dan Darling, director of the US Land Center for Cultural Engagement.
As the United States Congress struggles with infighting and division over whether to continue military aid to Ukraine, the April 8 letter urges Johnson to “consider the plight of Christians” at the hands of brutal Russian forces, the Baptist Press reports.
“The Russian government’s decision to invade Ukraine and to target Baptists and other evangelical Christians in Ukraine has been a tragic hallmark of the war,” the letter says. Russian forces have carried out a systematic expulsion of “faithful Christians in occupied areas of Ukraine” in a manner that includes threats, torture and the removal of pastors who are considered sympathetic to the West, the letter adds.
The letter also noted that at least 270 houses of worship, religious educational institutions and sacred sites were destroyed or damaged in an apparently systematic and targeted way during the first five months of the invasion alone, the Baptist Press reports.
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