The U.S. State Department: nonstate groups imperiled religious liberties in areas of eastern Ukraine controlled by Russian-backed separatists

The U.S. State Department in its annual International Religious Freedom Report for 2014 states that nonstate groups imperiled religious liberties not only in the Middle East, Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa, but also in areas of eastern Ukraine controlled by Russian-backed separatists.

In eastern Ukraine Russian-backed rebels that control parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions "have kidnapped, beaten, and threatened Protestants, Catholics, and members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, as well as participated in anti-Semitic acts," the report says.

Fighting between Kyiv's forces and the separatists in eastern Ukraine has killed more than 7,900 people since April 2014, though a cease-fire has largely held since early September.

The report also says religious minorities in Crimea "have been subjected to harassment, intimidation, detentions, and beatings" since Russia's 2014 forcible annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula, which was condemned by more than 100 countries in a vote at the UN General Assembly.

Members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, and Muslim Tatars have been the primary targets of these abuses in Crimea since the Russian takeover, the report says.

International Religious Freedom Report for 2014