A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has initiated a new bill, the Act in support of religious freedom in Ukraine, which will pursue attempts by the Russian occupation authorities to restrict religious freedom in Crimea and eastern Ukraine.
This is stated in an official statement on the website of the US Helsinki Commission, Ukrinform reports.
"The Kremlin's current crackdown on the (occupied) territory of Ukraine reflects the ugly sequence of Soviet times when believers were persecuted for their religious beliefs," Republican Senator Roger Wicker, one of the authors of the bill, said in this regard.
He stressed that Vladimir Putin and his henchmen "should feel the real consequences" for cruel attempts to restrict the religious freedom of Ukrainians suffering from the Russian occupation.
Another author of the document, Democratic Senator Jin Shaheen, for her part, stressed that this bill will bring the Kremlin to justice.
"There is an urgent bipartisan need in Congress to demonstrate support for Ukraine in countering Putin's brutality, including his barbaric attacks on peaceful religious communities," the Democratic senator stressed.
The act in support of religious freedom in Ukraine contains provisions that require the US president to respond to particularly serious violations of religious freedom in the Russian-occupied territory of the Ukrainian Crimea and parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The bill confirms that the U.S. policy is to "never recognize the illegal attempt to annex Crimea by the Russian government or the secession of any part of Ukrainian territory by military force."
Bill s is also under consideration by the Ukraine Security Partnership Act of 2021117th Congress". It provides for increased U.S. support for Ukraine against the background of Russian aggression.