At the beginning of 2024, the the Russian militants calling themselves 'Cossacks'", so-called Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) sealed off all churches and the territories adjacent to them and do not allow believers of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church to enter the churches and the territory for prayers and worship.
Source: Institute for Religious Freedom
The appeals by the faithful to the local officials of the “DPR" regarding the sealing of churches and the prevention of religious activities by the “Cossacks” did not bring any results. Greek Catholic believers are deprived of the opportunity to visit their churches and perform divine services.
Prior to that, the priests who ministered in these churches were expelled from the occupied territories, and two priests of the UGCC from Berdyansk - Fr. Ivan Levitskyi and Fr. Bohdan Geleta - were imprisoned on November 16, 2022 and are currently still in captivity.
It should be noted that in the occupied territory of the Zaporizhzhia region, on December 26, 2022, the occupation authorities issued the so-called order according to which the activities of the UGCC and its social service organizations are prohibited in the captured part of the Zaporizhzhia region.
We recall that since 2014, in Donetsk, "Donetsk People’s Republic" prayer rooms have been taken away from a number of religious communities of various denominations.