16 Jehovah’s Witnesses jailed for refusing to go to front since start of war

A Jehovah’s Witnesses Kingdom Hall. Photo: Glavcom

Jehovah’s Witnesses in Ukraine have been refusing military mobilization en masse, citing their pacifist religious convictions, The Spectator reports.

Since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022, around 3,000 members of the organization have been detained by Ukrainian authorities. According to Jarrod Lopes, a representative of the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ world headquarters, 2,231 of them have been forcibly sent to military units, while 16 people have been sentenced to prison for refusing military service on grounds of conscience.

The first prisoner was Vitaliy Kryschenko, who was arrested in January 2025. He was later released, but his conviction remained. “Since I follow the rules, I will present myself when summoned by the military court, but the story will start again,” he told the outlet.

Before martial law was introduced in 2022, Ukrainian legislation allowed for alternative civilian service. After martial law came into force, however, refusal of conscription became a criminal offense. The organization has more than 125,000 members in Ukraine.

Some of them are involved in humanitarian missions – evacuating civilians from combat zones and delivering essential supplies. The article mentions Philip Sobotyak, who evacuated civilians from near Mariupol. He was captured by Russian GRU officers and tortured for ten days, including beatings and electric shocks. “We are willing to die, but not to kill,” he said.

Vitaliy and Natalia Petrov, a married couple, carried out humanitarian trips through the “gray zone.” Despite this, Vitaliy has been charged with failing to appear after receiving a summons and is now wanted by the authorities. “I was ready to offer my life, but I will not take anyone else’s,” he said.

As the UOJ reported, the European Court of Human Rights ordered Ukraine to pay compensation to Jehovah’s Witnesses.

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