LUHANSK REGION, Ukraine — Russian security officers and regional police raided a Baptist congregation’s Sunday morning worship service in a Russian-occupied area of Ukraine.
Rights group Forum 18 reports that members of Luhansk Regional Police’s Anti-Extremism Center, accompanied by Russia’s Federal Security Service, descended upon the March 2 worship service of a Baptist congregation in Stakhanov, Ukraine.
RELATED: Check out more stories on the persecuted church.
“After the service, Anti-Extremism Center officer Captain Gennady Turko ordered three church members — including the pastor Andrey Khmelevsky — to go with him to ‘give explanations,’” states Forum 18.
On April 10, a judge in Stakhanov Town Court — controlled by Russia — closed the case against Khmelevsky for “absence of an offense,” Forum 18 states.
In February, Ilichev District Court in Mariupol, also Russian-controlled, levied a fine of several days’ wages against Pastor Leonid Ponomaryov over his unregistered Council of Churches Baptist congregation. He was accused of violating Russia’s restrictions on “missionary activity.”
Forces occupying territory in Ukraine have, since 2022, banned or closed some religious entities.
“Russian occupation officials treat all Ukrainian religious communities that have not received Russian state registration as illegal,” notes Forum 18. “They seize religious literature, photograph those present and hand material to prosecutors’ offices for religious leaders to be prosecuted.”
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