Weekly Update #58
April 10

General Figures

Refugees from Ukraine recorded across Europe 

8,163,268

Last updated 4 April 2023

Refugees from Ukraine registered for Temporary Protection or similar national protection schemes in Europe 

5,027,182

Last updated 4 April 2023

Border crossings from Ukraine (since 24 February 2022)

20,189,825

Last updated 4 April 2023

Border crossings to Ukraine (since 28 February 2022)

11,634,942

Last updated 4 April 2023

Source: https://data.unhcr.org/en/situations/ukraine 

Russian occupation authorities are likely conducting a campaign of systematic religious persecution in occupied Ukraine. 

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 Russian soldiers or occupations authorities have reportedly committed at least 76 acts of religious persecution in Ukraine. Russian authorities have closed, nationalized, or forcefully converted at least 26 places of worship to the Kremlin-controlled Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, killed or seized at least 29 clergy or religious leaders, and looted, desecrated, or deliberately destroyed at least 13 places of worship in occupied Ukraine. These cases of religious repression are not likely isolated incidents but rather part of a deliberate campaign to systematically eradicate “undesirable” religious organizations in Ukraine and promote the Moscow Patriarchate. 

Moscow’s religious persecution campaign seeks to eradicate the Autocephalous (independent) Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), which Moscow views as schismatic despite the decision by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in 2019 granting the Ukrainian Orthodox Church its independence from the Moscow Patriarchate. Russian occupation authorities are likely systematically eliminating OCU churches in occupied Ukraine. ISW’s research found that 34 percent of the reported persecution events targeted the OCU, making it the single most targeted religious group. The high percentage of persecution events aimed at the OCU is not surprising on the one hand because it is the most popular confession in Ukraine. It is surprising on the other hand because the Kremlin has been posturing as the defender of Christianity in general and Eastern Orthodoxy in particular. Witness reports indicate that Russian authorities are seemingly targeting the OCU for its Ukrainianess. The Russians pursued such targeted attacks on the OCU even during the short-lived Russian partial occupation of Kyiv Oblast early in the war, suggesting that this targeting was an intentional component of the Russian invasion from the outset.

Russian occupation forces have also targeted other denominations that are distinctly culturally Ukrainian. Russian forces captured two Ukrainian Greek Catholic priests in Berdyansk in November 2022, deporting them and effectively closing the main Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Melitopol in December 2022.  Russian soldiers arrested a Protestant pastor and closed his congregation in Melitopol, reportedly because of his pro-Ukrainian views. 

Russia’s systematic religious persecution supports a larger Russian campaign of cultural genocide against Ukraine. ISW has previously assessed that Russia is conducting mass deportations of Ukrainian children and depopulating Ukrainian territory in what likely amounts to a deliberate ethnic cleansing campaign. ISW has assessed that this ethnic cleansing campaign is part of a larger Kremlin campaign of cultural genocide that seeks to eradicate the notion of a unique Ukrainian cultural identity. Ethnic cleansing has not been specified as a crime under international law, but a United Nations Commission of Experts has described ethnic cleansing as “a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas.  The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide declares that genocide includes “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” This definition aligns with current Russian efforts to eliminate “undesirable” Ukrainian religious groups in occupied Ukrainian territories.  Russian deliberate attacks and vandalism against places of worship in occupied Ukraine may also constitute war crimes. 

Sources: ISW - RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE CAMPAIGN ASSESSMENT, APRIL 9, 2023

ISW Interactive Map

Civilian casualties from 1 to 31 March 2023. 

From 1 to 31 March 2023, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded 765 civilian casualties in Ukraine:

• 178 killed (100 men, 51 women, 7 boys, 1 girl, as well as 19 adults whose sex is not yet known); and

• 587 injured (251 men, 116 women, 23 boys, 2 girls, as well as 2 children and 193 adults whose sex is not yet known).

This included:

• 154 killed and 505 injured in 138 settlements in territory controlled by the Government when casualties occurred (86 percent of the total); and

• 24 killed and 82 injured in 21 settlements in territory occupied by the Russian Federation when casualties occurred (14 percent of the total).

Source:  OHCHR

Msgr. Robert Vitillo comforts a crying woman in Irpin, near Kyiv in Ukraine, who lost her home and all belongings during the Russian shelling attacks (ICMC/Andrey Gorb).