DESS head reveals where faith is now persecuted "worse than in the USSR"
Conference "Church – Science – Society: Issues of Interaction". Photo: DESS
The head of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) Viktor Yelensky at the round table "Freedom of Conscience under Occupation" in Kyiv stated that the persecution of believers in the Russian Federation is "worse than in the USSR", reports DESS of Ukraine.
According to him, practices that have surpassed the late Soviet period in their cruelty are being applied in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. In particular, he gave an example that if under Brezhnev, conscientious objectors from among Jehovah's Witnesses received 2–3 years of imprisonment, today in the Russian Federation believers of this organization receive real sentences of 6–8 years for their beliefs and peaceful assemblies.
Yelensky characterized modern Russia as a "natural enemy of religious freedom," mentioned totalitarian-type allies and emphasized the need to document crimes against believers in the temporarily occupied territories, guaranteeing confidentiality to those who provide information to the service.
As the UOJ reported, DESS intends to file lawsuits against every UOC eparchy.
Read also
Media: Dumenko prayed before icon of Royal Martyrs on Mount Athos
During a visit to the St. Elijah Skete of Pantokrator Monastery, the head of the OCU stood before icons of Tsar Nicholas II and St. Seraphim of Sarov.
Britain bars transit to Finnish MP opposing LGBT
British authorities refused to allow the lawmaker, convicted for quoting the Bible, to make a connecting flight.
OCU arranges visit of monks from Athos’ New Esphigmenou to Lavra
The Athonite monks arrived in connection with the 975th anniversary of the founding of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.
Metropolitan Vissarion of Ovruch undergoes major surgery
The ruling hierarch of the Ovruch Eparchy had a tumor removed at Kyiv’s Shalimov Institute.
Ukrainian monastery in Romania celebrates patronal feast
Clergy of the Ukrainian Vicariate celebrated the Liturgy on the monastery’s patronal feast according to the Julian calendar.
Senegal enshrines marriage as union of man and woman in Constitution
Senegalese lawmakers unanimously backed an amendment aimed at protecting traditional values from external influence.