Kyiv, Ukraine CNN —Pastor Dmytro Bodyu said the Russians kept telling him they knew he was an American spy, specifically, a CIA agent paid by the US government to spread anti-Russian propaganda in occupied Ukraine.
Since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has jailed dozens of Ukrainian faith leaders in occupied areas, according to Ukrainian prosecutors.
In the territories occupied after February 2022, Russian tactics became bloodier and more violent,” he said.
Ukraine created its own independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine in 2018, splitting from the Moscow-affiliated Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC).
‘American spies’Moscow has been cracking down on all non-Russian churches in occupied Ukraine, but Protestant and Evangelical groups have often been among the first to be banned.
Persons:
Dmytro Bodyu, “, ” Bodyu, Bodyu, he’d, Petros Giannakouris, Jae C, Bohdan Heleta, Ivan Levitsky, ” Heleta, ” Bohdan Heleta, Alex Babenko, Levitsky, Maksym, Vishchyk, ”, ” Vishchyk, Vladimir Putin’s, Putin, Kirill, Putin’s, Mariupol, Evgeniy, Priest, of Jesus Christ, Falun Gong, Serhii, Serhii Chudynovych, Chudynovych, ‘, ’ ”, ’, Mike Johnson, Mykhailo Brytsyn, Brytsyn, Ivashchuk, Mykhailo Brystsyn, Ivana Kottasova, Grace, Mykhailo Brytsyn Ihor Ivashchuk, ” Ivashchuk, Pastor Ihor Ivashchuk, CNN Ivashchuk, CNN’s Katharina Krebs, Victoria Butenko
Organizations:
Ukraine CNN —, CIA, Life, CNN, Ukrainian, Russian Orthodox Church, 95th Air Assault Brigade, Yasuyoshi, Getty, Orthodox Church, Information Resilience, AP Church, Russian Defense Ministry, Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Catholic Church, Global Rights, State Department, Church of, Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Ukraine’s State Service, Ethnic, Russian, Church, of Jesus, of Scientology, Orthodox, of, Kherson Prosecutor’s, Protestants, Evangelical, Ukraine, Grace Church, Russia, Evangelical Grace Church, ” CNN, Grace
Locations:
Kyiv, Ukraine, American, Melitopol, Ukrainian, Moscow, Russia, Donetsk, AFP, Berdiansk, Kherson, Lukashivka, Chernihiv, Odesa, Crimea, Vishchyk, “, Russian, Church of Ukraine, Mariupol, of Ukraine, Serhii, Bashtanka, ’ Moscow, United States, Soviet Union