WASHINGTON -- Churches in occupied Ukraine are “loyal to Moscow rather than God,” Ukrainian military chaplain Mark Serhiyev said at a July 24 congressional hearing, adding that Russia is waging a “Christian jihad” in the region.
Serhiyev, an evangelical pastor in Melitopol, a city in southern Ukraine, was invited to speak to the Helsinki Commission about life as a non-Orthodox Christian in occupied Ukraine. Serhiyev said he came to the United States to meet with over 25 pastors and American Christians to “spread the stories” of Ukrainian believers.
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Members of Congress in recent months have met with representatives from various Ukrainian Protestant churches to better understand the impact of the war on religious freedom. Evangelical leaders, in turn, have said that minority faith groups are under threat in Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine as they appeal to American evangelicals, a key constituency in the presidential election this November.
Serhiyev told the commission that he watched “from the windows of my church” as Russian tanks “rolled into my city” in the early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
There are no evangelical churches left in Russia-occupied parts of Ukraine, Serhiyev told Representative Joe Wilson (Republican-South Carolina), chairman of the Helsinki Commission, which is a committee that focuses on security, cooperation, and human rights in Europe.
Serhiyev noted that before the war there were 2,000 Baptist churches and 2,500 Pentecostal churches in Ukraine. He didn’t specify how many remain but said many Christians are now worshiping underground.
Serhiyev said his father, also an evangelical pastor, was given 72 hours early in the invasion to record a video in front of his Melitopol church stating that Russian President Vladimir Putin controlled the area. His father refused to make the video, even under threat of having his fingers cut off, and the church’s 40-foot cross was “cut up” and “replaced with the Russian flag.”
“Russians are trying to make a weapon of religion,” Serhiyev said, adding that his church is now being used to host pro-Russia concerts funded by the Kremlin.
Moscow values religion for controlling the public, Serhiyev said, noting that Russia in June exchanged a single Orthodox priest for Ukrainian soldiers in a prisoner swap.
While Serhiyev told the commission that Ukraine has “100 percent religious freedom,” in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine members of all non-Orthodox denominations and religions are targeted.
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Under Russian occupation, Serhiyev said 80 percent of congregants from his 1,500-person church fled. Those who remain meet and pray in small groups of less than five people in what Serhiyev described as a “new level of faith.” One small group leader, Lena, is being held prisoner by Russia for leading a small evangelical group, Serhiyev recounted.
Penn State professor Catherine Wanner told the commission there is “no place for Protestants in the Russian world.” According to Wanner, who previously worked for the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University, evangelicals in Russia are considered “apostates,” “traitors,” and “spies.”
For Serhiyev, Russia’s behavior parallels his great-grandfather’s experience as a jailed pastor in the Soviet Union. He was later killed.
“Nothing has changed,” Serhiyev told RFE/RL. “The questions by the communist KGB were the same when Russians came into my house.”
Serhiyev said that when the Russian forces found out he was a pastor, he was forced to go outside in the middle of the night. Russian soldiers, he said, pointed an assault rifle in his face while his 9-year-old son, Christopher, watched.
Serhiyev also condemned Patriarch Kirill, who is the head of the Russian Orthodox Church and known for his ties to Putin.
The hearing addressed Kirill, who announced a “Christian jihad,” and proclaimed that every Russian soldier who fights against Ukraine would “go directly to heaven because he’s fighting for the country” if he died in battle, Serhiyev told RFE/RL.
From the Russian perspective, Serhiyev said Kirill wants a “fight for the Slavic Orthodox world,” which “is crazy because they are killing kids and destroying our city.”