Experts reveal number of UOC churches destroyed by warfare

Destroyed UOC church in Donetsk Region. Photo: oikoumene

March 4, 2025 – The Academic Workshop of Religious Studies has released a new report titled "Religion in Fire: Three Years of War in Numbers," which systematizes data on the destruction of religious buildings in Ukraine from February 24, 2022, to February 2, 2025.

According to the report, 643 religious structures have been damaged during the war, with 51 of them completely destroyed. The majority of the destroyed churches belonged to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC).

The breakdown of completely destroyed religious sites is as follows:

Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) – 31 objects
Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) – 5
Evangelical Christians-Baptists – 5
Jehovah's Witnesses – 5
Christians of Evangelical Faith – 2
Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, and other Protestant communities – 1 object each

The highest number of destroyed and damaged religious buildings was recorded in regions where intense fighting took place:

Donetsk region – 131 objects
Luhansk region – 90
Kharkiv region – 86
Kherson region – 74
Kyiv and Kyiv region – 88

Earlier, the UOJ reported that more than half of the religious buildings destroyed or damaged during Russia's aggression belonged to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

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