US urged to sanction Russia for ‘gross violations’ of religious freedom

Although the USCIRF report did not recommend any designation for Ukraine, it voiced concern about its recent adoption of legislation banning religious communities with links to Moscow.

Russia was among the 16 countries that the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommended be designated a “country of particular concern” in its 2025 report published last week.

The commission called on the US government to impose sanctions and travel restrictions on Russian government agencies and individuals responsible for “severe religious freedom violations”, specifying the “gross violations” of religious freedom in the occupied Ukrainian territories.

The report included the examples of Fr Stepan Podolchak, a priest of the independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine, whom “Russian forces allegedly abducted and tortured to death”, and Fr Kostiantyn Maksimov, who was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment on espionage charges after he was arrested in 2023 “for refusing to transfer his parish to the Russian Orthodox Church”.

Its publication coincided with recent analysis issued by the Institute of Study of War (ISW), which in its 24 March briefing detailed religious persecution in the occupied Kherson region. It said Russian authorities targeted Evangelical Christians in particular, but also forced Ukrainian Orthodox churches to convert to the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) by “reconsecrating” them.

Quoting findings by the Centre of National Resistance of Ukraine, the ISW said ROC priests “watch Russian occupation officials torture Ukrainian Protestant Christian believers and force Ukrainian children to pray for the ‘Russkiy Mir’ (Russian World) – a Kremlin-promoted geopolitical concept”.

Although the USCIRF report did not recommend any designation for or action against Ukraine, it voiced concern about its recent adoption of legislation banning religious communities with links to Moscow which is expected to be implemented this spring “despite widespread concerns [about its] compatibility with international law”.

“The amendments would likely significantly impact the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which Ukrainian authorities and society have viewed with suspicion following Russia’s 2022 invasion” the USCIRF said.

Within Russia, the ROC has continued to silence dissent within its ranks. Fr Nikolai Savchenko, a priest in St Petersburg, reported that had been arrested and charged with “displaying extremist symbols” because of a 2014 photo on social media showing him holding a Ukrainian flag.

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