Religious communities in Ukraine âwill likely be targeted with violence and oppressionâ should Russia gain control of Ukraine, a federal commission on religious freedom has warned.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said it is appalled by the suffering caused by the Russian invasion of its independent neighbor, which entered its fourth week on Wednesday.
âThere is a direct relationship between religious freedom violations and the dismantling of civil society in and by Russia,â USCIRF Commissioner James W. Carr said in a statement. âThe Russian government uses distortions of religious history to support its claim that Ukrainians have no independent ethnoreligious identity or state tradition,â he said.
The Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which broke with the Russian Orthodox Church and gained recognition from Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in 2019, would be âin jeopardy if Russian control expandsâ in the nation, Mr. Carr said.
Another USCIRF commissioner, Khizr Khan, said other religious minorities would be at risk should Russia gain a larger territory.
Mr. Khan said the Russians have used âbaseless charges of religious extremism and terrorismâ to block adherents of those faiths and institutions âthat do not conform to its narrow interpretation of âtraditionalâ religion.â
He cited the fate of indigenous Tatar Muslims in Russian-occupied Crimea, who regularly face terrorism charges because of their ethnic and religious identity, according to reports.
Mr. Khan added, âMany of these individuals receive prison sentences of up to 20 years. The Russian governmentâs aggression toward religious freedom is an indicator that much worse will follow, as we certainly see a risk of this pattern being repeatedâ should Russia not be turned back in its invasion.
Already, Russian artillery on March 12 damaged a 16th-century monastery revered by Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox Christians, the Holy Dormition Svyatogorsk Lavra in eastern Ukraine. Also damaged that day was a mosque in Mariupol, where 80 civilians took shelter, the Associated Press reported.
Russiaâs persecution of religious minorities has drawn American criticism over the years. In 2021, Secretary of State Antony Blinken designated Russia a âcountry of particular concernâ under the terms of the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act.
Congress established USCIRF as an independent, bipartisan federal government entity to monitor, analyze, and report on religious freedom abroad. The group makes foreign policy recommendations âintended to deter religious persecution and promote freedom of religion and belief,â a statement said.