Safiyeka and Bekir Kuku have not seen their father since armed officers burst into their home in Yalta on Feb 11 and took Emir-Huseyn Kuku away. It is not the first time their father, a lawyer and human rights activist has been detained since Russia’s annexation of Crimea.  This time, however, the children’s Babashka has not come home

Two young Crimean Tatars are in real danger of long prison sentences. They have committed no crime, but are alleged to be involved in Hizb ut-Tahrir, an organization which has also committed no crime, but which Russia decided to criminalize

Eight Crimean Muslims, including a prominent human rights activist, are in detention in Russian-occupied Crimea and facing long prison sentences for fictitious ’terrorism’ based solely on claims that they are members of a peaceful organization which is banned in Russia, but not in Ukraine

Ukraine’s parliament has adopted a law which could deprive believers of the right to alternative military service, a right enshrined in the Ukrainian Constitution.

If it was bad for dialogue between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill to admit to Russia’s pivotal role in the war in Ukraine, they should have kept off the subject altogether, particularly given the evidence of systematic religious persecution by Russian & Russian-backed militants and the role played by many paramilitary groups under Russian Orthodox banners

A court in Russian-occupied Simferopol has remanded in custody four Crimean Muslims, including Emir-Huseyn Kuku from the Crimean Contact Group on Human Rights. The court hearings coincided with a second day of armed searches specifically of Crimean Tatar homes.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the Kyiv Patriarchate is being forced out of the Cathedral of Vladimir and Olga in Simferopol and Archbishop Kliment of Crimea and Simferopol warns that the Church is facing dissolution and destruction as the second anniversary approaches of Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea

Said Ismagilov, Mufti of the Muslims of Ukraine, reports that Thursday’s armed search on the Islamic Cultural Centre Mosque in Simferopol was the third such raid by the FSB and the second time that so-called prohibited literature was planted.

Ukraine is unique, according to Said Ismagilov, Mufti of the Spiritual Directorate of Muslims of Ukraine, and could share important experience with the rest of Europe since Muslims have been fully integrated into Ukrainian society for over a thousand years.

All Ukrainian Orthodox churches under the Kyiv Patriarchate could be forced to close from Jan 1, Archbishop Kliment of Simferopol and Crimea has warned. He says that all who miss Ukraine come to their churches, although it is dangerous to speak about politics, and even talking about a return of the good times can be viewed as seditious

Why was the Patriarch silent, he asks, when Orthodox churches of the Kyiv Patriarchate were seized in Crimea in 2014, “when they abducted and tortured my parishioners Andrei Shchekun, Anatoly Kovalsky, Oleg Sentsov, Oleksandr Kolchenko and Oleksandr Kostenko?”

4 Crimean Tatars are imprisoned in Crimea facing heavy sentences for involvement in an organization that is legal in Ukraine and other countries, but which Russia has labelled ‘terrorist’. There is no evidence that any of the men committed any crime, nor indeed that one of the men is even a member of Hizb ut-Takhrir. 

Iryna Mahdysh, Head of the Lviv Department of Culture, was forced to resign on Oct 7 after Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy made it clear he would not support her and ‘apologized’ for opinions she had expressed which offended many believers.

Three Muslims jailed in Russian-occupied Crimea since January on charges of involvement in the Hizb-ut-Tahrir movement which is banned as ‘terrorist’ in Russia and, but not in Ukraine (or in any other country) have now had their lawyer, Emil Kurbedinov, forcibly removed from the case.

Archbishop Clement of Simferopol and Crimea (Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate) has issued an impassioned appeal on behalf of the Church and all Ukrainians in Crimea asking the UN, OSCE, EU countries, and especially those countries who once guaranteed Ukraine’s territorial integrity through the Budapest Memorandum, to defend the national, cultural and religious rights of all Ukrainian nationals in Crimea.

A recent report highlights widespread and systematic persecution of all religious groups except believers linked to the Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in Donbas, and the role of Russia and its armed criminal ‘crusaders’ in mounting crimes against humanity in the region.

A year after Russia annexed Crimea, almost all faiths are experiencing serious pressure from the occupation regime, with the regulations on Russian re-registration and restrictions on Ukrainian nationals serving to drive many out and / or prevent them from functioning legally.

As feared, the demand that religious communities re-register according to Russian legislation is being used as a weapon enabling an effective ban on Ukrainian churches and religious organizations functioning in Crimea.

Faced with the damning evidence of wide-scale religious persecution in Russian-occupied Crimea, Moscow, via Kremlin-loyal media, has attempted yet again to turn the truth upside down. The weight of facts is against them and they really should not bother.

"Who could have imagined that in the 21st century in the centre of Europe we would be seeing widespread repression unleashed on the basis of religion? (Said Ismagilov, Mufti of the Spiritual Directorate of Muslims of Ukraine)