Group members said Russian occupiers are snuffing out religious and other freedoms in areas of Ukraine under Russian control. “We are eyewitnesses of Russian atrocities going on in our country,” said Metropolitan Yevstratiy Zoria, a representative of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has declared its independence from Moscow and proclaimed its loyalty to Ukraine, but a government study commission contended that the UOC remains a structural unit of the Russian Orthodox Church. The other separate, but similarly-named church, Orthodox Church of Ukraine, was officially recognized as independent by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople in 2019, but the Russian church has disputed the legitimacy of that recognition. Zoria decried statements by Moscow Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church, who has strongly supported the war as part of a metaphysical battle against Western liberalism and has said the Russian war dead have their sins forgiven.

---

Persons: Ivan Rusyn, ”, Freedom, “, Bartholomew of Constantinople, you’re, Zoria, Kirill, ” Zoria, Yaakov Dov Bleich, ” Bleich, Vladimir Putin, Ukraine Akhmed Tamim Organizations: WASHINGTON, Ukrainian Evangelical Church, Ukrainian, of, U.S . Institute of Peace, Orthodox, of Ukraine, The U.S . Commission, ” UNESCO, U.S . State Department, Church, Orthodox Church of, Ecumenical, Metropolitan Zoria, Russian Orthodox Church, Administration, Lilly Endowment Inc, AP Locations: Ukrainian, United States, Ukraine, Russian, Rusyn, Christianity, The, ”, Houston, Moscow, Orthodox Church, Orthodox Church of Ukraine, of Ukraine, “, Kyiv, America, Yugoslavia