Russia's Migration Service has unilaterally annulled Baptist pastor Vladimir Rytikov's residence permit and ordered him to leave what it regards as Russian territory within two weeks. "I was born here and have lived here for [nearly] 67 years, now I'm being driven out," he noted after being ordered to leave. This appears to be punishment for leading his Council of Churches Baptist congregation, which meets for worship without Russian state registration. Russian-controlled courts have repeatedly fined him and other Council of Churches pastors.

Migration Service officials came to Pastor Rytikov's home in Krasnodon [official Ukrainian name Sorokyne] in Russian-occupied Luhansk Region on 21 March to inform him of the expulsion. They refused to give any reason. When he asked where he should go, the officials responded: "Go, maybe to Poland." They told Pastor Rytikov that the residence permit of his wife Lyudmila is not being annulled (see below).

Pastor Rytikov said he and his wife prayed about their predicament and decided that he would remain. "The Lord saw fit for me to perform a ministry in Krasnodon," he noted. He has been pastor of the church for over 30 years (see below).

The expulsion order came 10 days after Krasnodon Police drew up a record of an offence against Pastor Rytikov to punish him again for leading his unregistered congregation (see below).

Officials did not answer the phone at the Russian-controlled Migration Service in Krasnodon or in Luhansk each time Forum 18 called. Nor did officials at Krasnodon Police (see below).

Forum 18 asked Daniil Styazhkin, chief of staff of the Russian-controlled Luhansk Human Rights Ombudsperson Anna Soroka, why officials are preparing to deport Pastor Rytikov, who had been born locally and lived most of his life there. Forum 18 also asked what action Soroka was preparing to take (if any) in the case. Styazhkin told Forum 18 that he would respond. However, it has received no reply (see below).

Council of Churches Baptist congregations choose not to seek official registration in any country where they operate. They also usually refuse to notify the authorities of the start of their activity. Russian officials claim that their exercise of freedom of religion or belief – including meeting for worship or sharing their faith – is therefore illegal.

Police raided the Sunday meeting for worship on 8 February of the Council of Churches Baptists in the town of Slavyanoserbsk in Russian-occupied Luhansk Region. They took three church members, including the pastor, to the police station (see below).

On 10 March, Russian-controlled Krasny Luch Town Court fined Council of Churches Baptist Pastor Anatoly Krutik 5,000 Russian Roubles for conducting an "illegal" worship service. The fine represents several days' average local wages. Russian Police Centre for Countering Extremism officers had raided the church's Sunday morning worship service on 14 December 2025 (see below).

On 9 February, Khartsyzk Inter-District Court fined Pastor Oleg Stroyev 10,000 Russian Roubles for leading an unregistered Council of Churches Baptist congregation. Officials had raided the church's worship service on 23 December 2025 (see below).

Officials in Mariupol in Russian-occupied Donetsk Region have brought a further case against Council of Churches Baptist Pastor Leonid Ponomaryov for leading his unregistered congregation. Mariupol's Ilichev District Court is due to hear the case on 15 April. The same court fined him in February 2025 (see below).

Karina Galkina of the press office of the Russian-appointed Human Rights Ombudsperson for Donetsk, Darya Morozova, did not answer her phone each time Forum 18 called (see below).

In Russia, Interior Ministry authorities have revoked the Russian citizenship of at least 12 Jehovah's Witnesses and 2 Muslims given criminal convictions for exercising freedom of religion or belief. At least six of these have had to leave Russia. The practice "has been gaining momentum over the past year", Jehovah's Witnesses observe.

Russia's serious violations of freedom of religion or belief in occupied Ukraine

Russia seriously violates freedom of religion or belief and interlinked human rights in parts of Ukraine it illegally occupies (about a fifth of Ukraine's territory). Among such violations are:
- illegal annexation of territory and imposition of Russian law violating human rights;
- pressuring, kidnapping, torturing, jailing, and murdering religious leaders;
- seizing places of worship with no compensation;
- stopping meetings for worship, banning and closing religious communities;
- jailing prisoners of conscience for exercising freedom of religion or belief;
- transnational repression;
- banning religious texts and purging libraries;
- "anti-missionary" prosecutions; and
- the broadcasting of disinformation against religious communities and believers.

In a May 2025 report to the United Nations Human Rights Council on the situation of human rights in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine (A/HRC/59/67), UN Secretary-General António Guterres repeated earlier UN calls for Russia to respect freedom of religion or belief. "The occupying authorities of the Russian Federation continued to restrict the right to freedom of religion and belief for certain religious communities in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine," he declared.

"No individual should be criminally charged or detained simply for practising their religion, including in the forms of collective worship and proselytizing, in accordance with international human rights law," Secretary-General Guterres insisted. "Religious groups in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine should enjoy access to their places of worship and be able to gather freely for prayer and other religious practices."

In its latest report on the human rights situation in Ukraine, covering 1 June – 30 November 2025, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine issued a call to the Russian occupation authorities: "Respect the freedoms of expression, opinion, and religion, by ceasing all measures that seek to suppress Ukrainian identity, ending the prosecution of individuals for dissent, and allowing religious communities to practice their faith freely, subject only to the strict limits provided in international human rights law."

Russian-imposed punishments for meeting for worship, sharing faith

Russian occupation authorities impose punishments for meeting for worship or sharing faith without Russian permission.

Russian citizens accused of "unlawful missionary activity" are prosecuted under Russian Administrative Code Article 5.26, Part 4, and can receive fines of 5,000 to 50,000 Russian Roubles. Foreign citizens can be fined 30,000 to 50,000 Roubles under Russian Administrative Code Article 5.26, Part 5. They may also be expelled from the country. Registered organisations (also prosecuted under Part 4) can be fined up to 100,000 Russian Roubles.

Between July and December 2025, Russian officials are known to have raided at least eight meetings for worship in Russian-occupied Donetsk and Luhansk Regions. Six of the communities were from the Council of Churches Baptists, who meet without seeking official permission. The others were a Muslim community and a Pentecostal community. Officials brought administrative cases against at least 8 religious leaders following these raids, of which 6 have already ended with fines for "missionary activity".

In one day in September 2025, officials raided Muslim Friday prayers in a basement of a building in Mariupol and charged the two imams (both from Central Asia and recently arrived in Donetsk Region), and the local court had fined them for "missionary activity".

Religious communities registered under Russian law can face fines under Russian Administrative Code Article 5.26, Part 3 if they fail to display their full legal name on their place of worship, any item of literature used in the community or any media post.

Russian-controlled courts in Donetsk Region are known to have fined four religious communities in 2025 under this provision: Donetsk Jewish Religious Community in March 2025; St Joseph Roman Catholic parish in Donetsk in May 2025; and Morning Star Baptist Church and Light of Truth Pentecostal Church in Khartsyzk in June 2025.

Krasnodon-born, Soviet-era religious prisoner of conscience

Vladimir Pavlovich Rytikov was born in Krasnodon in the then Voroshilovgrad Region of Soviet Ukraine on 1 September 1959. Like his father and other relatives, he became a member of the Council of Churches Baptists. Their communities refused to seek state permission to exercise freedom of religion or belief, both in the Soviet period and afterwards.

The Soviet authorities jailed Rytikov from 1979 to 1982 to punish his exercise of freedom of religion or belief. He was later rehabilitated. (His father Pavel was jailed on the same day in 1979, also for three years.)

The Baptists ordained Vladimir Rytikov as pastor of the Krasnodon church in 1995. He has served as pastor ever since.

Krasnodon: Repeated raids, fines

After Russian-backed rebels established the Luhansk People's Republic in 2014, its officials repeatedly raided Council of Churches Baptist congregations and fined those who lead them. This continued after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and its claim to have annexed Ukrainian territories in September 2022.

Russian officials have in recent years repeatedly raided meetings for worship in the church Pastor Vladimir Rytikov leads in Krasnodon [official Ukrainian name Sorokyne] in Russian-occupied Luhansk Region. Courts have repeatedly fined him and other local Baptists.

Most recently, on 25 January, about 10 officials from the Russian Police Centre for Countering Extremism, local Police and military (some armed with automatic weapons), raided the Krasnodon church's Sunday morning worship service.

The officers accused church members of meeting illegally as the church has no Russian registration. They took Pastor Rytikov to the police station, where they interrogated him for some time. "They said that if we don't register, they'll come to every service and stop it taking place," Pastor Rytikov said in January.

Krasnodon: New charges of "illegal missionary activity"

On 9 March, officials handed Pastor Vladimir Rytikov a summons from acting head of Krasnodon Police Aleksei Mikhailovsky (seen by Forum 18). Lieutenant Colonel Mikhailovsky ordered Pastor Rytikov to come to the police station on the morning of 19 March for them to draw up a record of an offence under Russian Administrative Code Article 5.26, Part 4 ("Russians conducting missionary activity") for leading his unregistered Baptist congregation.

On the morning of 11 March, three police officers came to Pastor Rytikov's home in Krasnodon. They insisted that he had to go to the police station not on 19 March but immediately for them to draw up the record of an offence.

When Pastor Rytikov insisted that he would go to the police station on 19 March as indicated in the summons, the officers grabbed his hand and put him in the car without his identity documents, Pastor Rytikov noted later on 11 March. Officers drew up the record of an offence about "illegal missionary activity".

The telephone at Krasnodon's Russian-controlled Police went unanswered each time Forum 18 called on 23 and 24 March.

Krasnodon: "I was born here and have lived here for [nearly] 67 years, now I'm being driven out"

Russian Migration Service officials came to Pastor Vladimir Rytikov's home in Krasnodon at about midday on 21 March. They told him they were cancelling his residence permit. They told him he had to leave for another country within two weeks. When he asked where he should go, they responded: "Go, maybe to Poland."

Migration officials told Pastor Rytikov that they were annulling only his residence permit, and not that of his wife Lyudmila. They refused to say why they were annulling his residence permit. "I was born here and have lived here for [nearly] 67 years, now I'm being driven out," Pastor Rytikov said he told the officials. "What if I don't go anywhere?" Officials responded: "We'll punish you." They added that they would remove him forcibly.

"They demanded that he hand them the document (residence permit)," local Baptists noted on 22 March. "But Vladimir refused to do so as they were holding a rubber stamp in their hands and wanted to stamp it as annulled." They told him the Migration Service has already informed all relevant (Russian) agencies.

When Pastor Rytikov asked why he was being forced to leave, the Migration Service officials showed him an order but refused to allow him to read it or to give him a copy. They ordered him to come to their office in Krasnodon on 23 March for his residence permit to be stamped as annulled.

Pastor Rytikov said he and his wife prayed about it and decided that he would remain. "The Lord saw fit for me to perform a ministry in Krasnodon," he noted.

"My telephone is surveilled and listened to," Pastor Rytikov added.

Court documents from 2024 indicate that the Interior Ministry of the then Luhansk People's Republic issued Pastor Rytikov with a passport on 2 August 2021. It remains unclear what passport he now holds.

Officials at the Migration Service in both Krasnodon and Luhansk – part of Russia's Interior Ministry – did not answer the phone each time Forum 18 called on 23 and 24 March.

On 24 March, Forum 18 asked Daniil Styazhkin, chief of staff of the Russian-controlled Luhansk Human Rights Ombudsperson Anna Soroka, why officials are preparing to deport Pastor Rytikov, who had been born locally and lived most of his life there. Forum 18 also asked what action Soroka was preparing to take (if any) in the case. Styazhkin told Forum 18 that he would respond. However, it had received no reply by the end of the working day locally of 24 March.

Slavyanoserbsk: Police raid Sunday worship meeting

Police raided the Sunday meeting for worship on 8 February of the Council of Churches Baptists in the town of Slavyanoserbsk in Russian-occupied Luhansk Region. "As on previous occasions, they accused us of not having lodged notification," church members noted the same day.

Police took the pastor Andrei Pletka and two other church members to the police station to write statements.

Krasny Luch: Fine follows police raid on Sunday worship meeting

Russian Police Centre for Countering Extremism officers raided the Sunday morning worship service on 14 December 2025 of the Council of Churches Baptists in the town of Krasny Luch [official Ukrainian name Khrustalny] in Russian-occupied Luhansk Region.

"When the service was over, they conducted an inspection of the premises and took statements from Pastor Anatoly Krutik, as well as the woman who owns the house and three other church members," local Baptists noted in December 2025. "When they had finished the inspection, they left the prayer house."

The Russian-controlled Krasny Luch Police claimed Pastor Krutik "had no documents confirming the authority to conduct missionary activity in the name of a religious association". It said he therefore violated Russian Administrative Code Article 5.26, Part 4 ("Russians conducting missionary activity").

Krasny Luch Police handed the case against Pastor Krutik to Russian-controlled Krasny Luch Town Court. The case was assigned to Judge Tatyana Makhorina, according to court records. On the afternoon of 10 March, Judge Makhorina found Pastor Krutik guilty under Russian Administrative Code Article 5.26, Part 4 for conducting an "illegal" worship service. She fined him 5,000 Russian Roubles, local Baptists noted. The fine represents several days' average local wages.

The listed number for Krasny Luch Town Court went unanswered each time Forum 18 called on 23 March.

"The assertion that [Pastor Krutik] carried out missionary activity is not confirmed in the case materials," local Baptists noted on 19 March. "The court considers as missionary activity a usual church service: reading the Bible, prayers and Christian hymn singing."

Local Baptists note that the worship meeting took place in a home "and not in a public place". "The court's contention that the church service had a public character does not accord with reality."

Baptists add that the court decision "contains no proof of attracting any specific individuals into the activity of any religious association". They insist that the community had formed no "religious association".

Pastor Krutik lodged an appeal against the decision to the Russian-controlled Luhansk Supreme Court. The court received the appeal on 23 March and assigned it to Judge Olga Bondarenko. The appeal is due to be heard on the morning of 29 April, according to court records.

Khartsyzk: Fine follows raid

On 23 December 2025, officials raided the worship service of the Council of Churches Baptists in the town of Khartsyzk in Russian-occupied Donetsk Region. "Officials have questioned us, and inspected the church building more than once," one church member told Forum 18 in January 2026.

In early January 2026, officials charged the pastor, Oleg Stroyev, under Russian Administrative Code Article 5.26, Part 4 ("Russians conducting missionary activity"). The case was presented to the Russian-controlled Khartsyzk Inter-District Court on 23 January. On 9 February, Judge Roman Tashchilin fined Pastor Stroyev 10,000 Russian Roubles, according to court records. This represents about one week's average local wage. Pastor Stroyev did not appeal against the decision.

Karina Galkina of the press office of the Russian-appointed Human Rights Ombudsperson for Donetsk, Darya Morozova, did not answer her phone each time Forum 18 called on 24 March.

Mariupol: Another case against Pastor goes to court

Officials in Mariupol in Russian-occupied Donetsk Region have brought a further case against Council of Churches Baptist Pastor Leonid Ponomaryov under Russian Administrative Code Article 5.26, Part 4 ("Russians conducting missionary activity") for leading his unregistered congregation.

Officials handed the case to the city's Russian-controlled Ilichev District Court on 19 March. The case was assigned to Judge Yelena Markova. The case is due to be heard at noon on 15 April, according to court records.

Among other religious leaders detained by Russia in occupied territory after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, on 21 September 2022 masked Russian soldiers took Pastor Ponomaryov and his wife Tatyana from their home in Mariupol. They were freed in Donetsk on 21 October 2022. (Tatyana Ponomaryova died of cancer in July 2025.)

Russian officials earlier punished Pastor Ponomaryov for leading his unregistered congregation. Prosecutors handed a case against him to court on 7 February 2025, under Russian Administrative Code Article 5.26, Part 4.

On 20 February 2025, Mariupol's Ilichev District Court fined Pastor Ponomaryov 5,000 Russian Roubles. The fine represents several days' average local wages. Pastor Ponomaryov did not appeal against the court decision.

The duty officer at the Russian-controlled Ilichev District Police told Forum 18 in April 2025 that he knew nothing about any Pastor Ponomaryov and put the phone down. An official of the Mariupol branch of the Russian-controlled Donetsk Human Rights Ombudsperson's Office – who did not give his name - refused to answer any questions by phone in April 2025 about violations of the right to freedom of religion or belief of city residents.

Neither the Russian-controlled Ilichev District Police nor the Mariupol branch of the Russian-controlled Donetsk Human Rights Ombudsperson's Office answered the phone each time Forum 18 called on 24 March 2026.

Karina Galkina of the press office of the Russian-appointed Human Rights Ombudsperson for Donetsk, Darya Morozova, did not answer her phone each time Forum 18 called on 24 March.

Donetsk: Court fines Russian-registered Protestant church

Prosecutors prepared a case against Donetsk's Biblical Believers Protestant Church under Russian Administrative Code Article 5.26, Part 3 ("Implementation of activities by a religious organisation without indicating its official full name, including the issuing or distribution, within the framework of missionary activity, of literature and printed, audio, and video material without a label bearing this name, or with an incomplete or deliberately false label").

The Church first gained registration under Ukrainian law in 2000. It registered under Russian law in November 2022, two months after Russian claimed to have annexed Donetsk Region.

The Russian occupation authorities insist that religious communities that want to exist must register under Russian law. Their leaders must have accepted Russian citizenship.

On 29 January 2026, prosecutors handed the case against Biblical Believers Church to Donetsk's Russian-controlled Budennovsk Inter-District Court. On 24 February, Judge Alina Tsvetkova fined the Church under Russian Administrative Code Article 5.26, Part 3, according to court records.

Karina Galkina of the press office of the Russian-appointed Human Rights Ombudsperson for Donetsk, Darya Morozova, did not answer her phone each time Forum 18 called on 24 March. (END)

More reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Occupied Ukraine

For background information, see Forum 18's Occupied Ukraine religious freedom survey

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