Occupiers take away Ukrainian churches in Kherson region - ISW

This is stated in a report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), according to Religiyna Pravda.

As noted, Russia continues to persecute religious communities in the occupied Kherson region as part of a campaign in occupied Ukraine aimed at destroying the independent Ukrainian national and religious identity.

On March 23, the National Resistance Center of Ukraine reported that in the occupied part of the Kherson region, Russian occupation officials are forcibly converting and re-consecrating Ukrainian churches to the Russian Orthodox Church.

The center reported that ROC priests are watching Russian occupation officials torture Ukrainian Protestant believers and force Ukrainian children to pray for the “Russian World,” a Kremlin-promoted geopolitical concept with amorphous parameters that broadly encompasses the Russian language, culture, Orthodoxy, and media.

ISW has previously reported on religious oppression by Russia in occupied Ukraine, including arbitrary detention and murder of Ukrainian clergy or religious leaders, as well as looting, desecration and deliberate destruction of places of worship.

ISW has also reported in detail on Russia's systematic repression of Ukrainian Orthodox communities and other religious minorities, including Ukrainian Protestants and Baptists, who have been subjected to brutality and repression in southern Ukraine.