On 9 March, a court in the southern Mykolaiv Region jailed 42-year-old Jehovah's Witness conscientious objector Volodymyr Klementiev for six years. Mykolaiv Appeal Court chaired by Olena Farionova rejected his appeal on 14 May. "To date, this is the longest prison sentence imposed on one of our brothers since the war in Ukraine began," Jehovah's Witnesses noted. The previous longest prison sentence was of five years.

The court jailed Klementiev under Criminal Code Article 407 ("Absence without leave from a military unit or place of service"). The punishment for offences committed under martial law under Part 5 is a jail term of 5 to 10 years. Prosecutors are bringing an increasing number of such cases against conscientious objectors which are supposed to be brought only against military personnel (see below).

Officials at Mykolaiv Specialised Prosecutor's Office in the Field of Defence of the Southern Region, who led the prosecution case at the trial and at the appeal hearing, did not answer the phone each time Forum 18 called (see below).

Baptists, Seventh-day Adventists, Orthodox and others are also among those convicted and jailed after Recruitment Offices rejected their applications on grounds of conscience for alternative civilian service. (For a list of some of those convicted and jailed, convicted and awaiting appeals, convicted and serving suspended sentences, and in pre-trial detention, see forthcoming F18News article.)

On 10 June, a court in the northern Chernihiv Region found 34-year-old Seventh-day Adventist conscientious objector Andrii Skliar guilty under both Criminal Code Article 402, Part 4 and Article 409, Part 4. The Judge jailed him for a combined period of 5 years and one month. He is preparing to lodge an appeal (see below).

Also on trial in the western Ivano-Frankivsk Region is 43-year-old Hare Krishna devotee Taras Borteychuk. He has been on bail since the start of his trial in late 2023. Ivano-Frankivsk City Court is due to reach a verdict on 23 June 2026 (see below).

Despite his and his community's pacifist beliefs, Borteychuk accepted mobilisation into the Interior Ministry's National Guard in March 2022. However, the unit refused to allow him to exercise his right to freedom of religion or belief, or access to religiously-appropriate food. "Unable to consume food permitted by his religion, he did not eat or drink anything for several days," the Parliamentary Human Rights Commissioner (Ombudsperson) Dmytro Lubinets noted in November 2023. Officials rejected Borteychuk's application to be transferred to alternative civilian service (see below).

The General Prosecutor's Office in Kyiv has not responded to Forum 18's questions:
- Why so many conscientious objectors are being prosecuted under Criminal Code Articles which should only be used against soldiers;
- Why so many conscientious objectors are being prosecuted under Criminal Code Article 336 ("Refusing call-up for military service during mobilisation or in a special period, and for military service during call-up of reservists in a special period");
- Why conscientious objectors cannot be given an alternative civilian service, such as working in hospitals (see below).

The Office of Parliamentary Human Rights Commissioner Lubinets did not respond to Forum 18's questions.

After Russia's renewed invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, Ukraine declared a state of martial law. All men between the ages of 27 (later reduced to 25) and 60 were deemed eligible for call-up in a general mobilisation and were banned from leaving the country. Ukraine's Defence Ministry insists that even the limited alternative service allowed in peacetime does not exist during wartime (see below).

Viktor Yelensky, head of the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS), noted in a March report the "sharp increase" in requests for alternative service from 2025. The Office of the Parliamentary Human Rights Commissioner (Ombudsperson) told the DESS that it had received 2,395 appeals from individuals about the denial of their request to perform alternative service "due to their religious beliefs" between Russia's full-scale attack on Ukraine between 2022 and 2025, more than two-thirds of them in 2025 alone (see below).

"Meanwhile, hundreds more of our brothers await criminal prosecution, including the possibility of lengthy prison sentences," Jehovah's Witnesses added. "Many of these brothers have been forcibly taken to military facilities, where they have sometimes been held for days or even months. Once there, they often face physical abuse and emotional pressure to compromise their neutral stand."

Recruitment offices have seized many men between the ages of 25 and 59 who had refused to serve in the military on grounds of conscience and forcibly transferred them to military units. Many have complained of torture, pressure and poor conditions (see forthcoming F18News article).

Of those forcibly taken to military units, at least 48 men born between 1967 and 2001 are from Council of Churches Baptist communities. They are still being held, despite expressing a willingness to perform alternative civilian service. In addition, one man, 50-year-old Dmytro Bohdanovych Koval, died in military detention on 21 March. When returned to his family, his body showed signs of brutal treatment (see forthcoming F18News article).

In March, the United Nations (UN) Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine renewed earlier UN concern about the lack of the possibility of conducting alternative civilian service at a time of war. It has also expressed concern about violence against conscientious objectors who have been forcibly taken to military bases (see forthcoming F18News article).

The ⁠Rule of Law Roadmap, adopted by Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers in May 2025, identifies priority reform areas in the fields of the judiciary, prevention and fight against corruption, protection of fundamental rights, as well as justice, freedom and security. The document forms part of Ukraine's commitments under the European Union accession process (see forthcoming F18News article).

The Roadmap identifies a "strategic goal": "The right to conscientious objection to military service on grounds of religious belief is ensured during martial law." The Roadmap sets a deadline of the end of June 2026 for "Development and adoption of a law on ensuring the right to undergo alternative service during martial law, for a special period". The government has assigned the task of preparing the new Law to the Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture. It has prepared a first draft, according to Yelensky of the DESS (see forthcoming F18News article).

Severe human rights violations in Russian-occupied Ukraine

Serious violations of freedom of religion and belief and other human rights take place within all the Ukrainian territory Russia has illegally occupied.

Arrests, prosecutions, trials

After Russia's renewed invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, Ukraine declared a state of martial law. All men between the ages of 27 (later reduced to 25) and 60 were deemed eligible for call-up in a general mobilisation and were banned from leaving the country. Ukraine's Defence Ministry insists that even the limited alternative service allowed in peacetime does not exist during wartime.

Prosecutors bring cases against conscientious objectors under Criminal Code Article 336 ("Refusing call-up for military service during mobilisation or in a special period, and for military service during call-up of reservists in a special period"). The punishment is a jail term of three to five years.

More recently, prosecutors have increasingly brought cases under Criminal Code Article 402 ("Disobedience"), Article 409 ("Evasion of military service by means of self-mutilation or otherwise") or Article 407 ("Absence without leave from a military unit or place of service"). The punishment for offences committed under martial law under Article 402, Part 4, Article 407, Part 5, and Article 409, Part 3 is a jail term of 5 to 10 years.

In earlier prosecutions, conscientious objectors were generally jailed only when they lost their appeals. However, courts are placing an increasing number in pre-trial detention.

The military has allowed a few men, including Council of Churches Baptists, to serve in roles that do not violate their conscientious beliefs. Such individuals are allowed to serve in the military without swearing the military oath, without wearing a uniform and without bearing weapons. They are assigned to such tasks as cleaning, cooking or repairing vehicles. Such service is not acceptable to the majority of conscientious objectors, who will not serve in any role associated with the military.

"Sharp increase" in requests for alternative service

Viktor Yelensky, head of the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS), noted the "sharp increase" in requests for alternative service from 2025.

Yelensky completed a review of the application of the rules on alternative service applications (posted on the DESS website) on 24 March 2026. He notes that between Russia's full-scale attack on Ukraine on 24 February 2022 and March 2026, individuals had submitted 5,235 applications to perform alternative service. He did not specify if this was for non-combat roles within the military or for fully civilian alternative service.

The Office of the Parliamentary Human Rights Commissioner (Ombudsperson) told the DESS that it had received 2,395 appeals from individuals about the denial of their request to perform alternative service "due to their religious beliefs" between Russia's full-scale attack on Ukraine on 24 February 2022 and 4 December 2025. Conscientious objectors had submitted 2 appeals in 2022, 12 in 2023, 796 in 2024 and 1,675 in 2025.

Yelensky stressed that "the statistics reflect only the fact of submitting a request, and not the result of its consideration or the legitimacy of the grounds for submitting it, in particular the availability of information confirming the sincerity and consistency of religious beliefs".

Yelensky did not say what, if anything, the Human Rights Commissioner had done in response to the appeals.

The State Judicial Administration told the DESS that 3,811 men had been convicted under Criminal Code Article 336 ("Refusing call-up for military service during mobilisation or in a special period, and for military service during call-up of reservists in a special period") between Russia's full-scale attack on Ukraine on 24 February 2022 and the end of 2025. It said 1,886 men were convicted in 2022, 930 in 2023, 618 in 2024, and 377 in 2025.

Yelensky's report makes no mention of conscientious objectors prosecuted and often jailed under other Criminal Code Articles (such as Article 402, Article 407 or Article 409) which are supposed to apply only to military personnel. Prosecutions under such Articles have increased.

Why the increasing number of prosecutions?

Forum 18 asked the General Prosecutor's Office in Kyiv on 20 March (re-sent on 9 June) about the increasing number of conscientious objectors facing charges under Criminal Code Article 402, Article 407 or Article 409, which should only be used against soldiers. They are not soldiers because they have not sworn the military oath and been accepted into the military.

Forum 18 asked:
- Why so many conscientious objectors are being prosecuted under Criminal Code Articles which should only be used against soldiers?
- Why so many conscientious objectors are being prosecuted under Criminal Code Article 336?
- Why conscientious objectors cannot be given an alternative civilian service, such as working in hospitals?
Forum 18 had received no response by the end of the working day in Kyiv of 16 June.

Longest prison term yet

On 9 March, Judge Olena Lopina of Mykolaiv District Court, Mykolaiv Region, jailed 42-year-old Jehovah's Witness conscientious objector Volodymyr Kostyantynovych Klementiev for six years. A panel of judges at Mykolaiv Appeal Court chaired by Olena Farionova rejected his appeal on 14 May, according to the decisions seen by Forum 18.

Mykolaiv Specialised Prosecutor's Office in the Field of Defence of the Southern Region led the prosecution case at the trial and at the appeal hearing. Officials there did not answer the phone each time Forum 18 called on 16 June.

"To date, this is the longest prison sentence imposed on one of our brothers since the war in Ukraine began," Jehovah's Witnesses noted on 8 June. The previous longest prison sentence was of five years.

The court jailed Klementiev under Part 5 of Criminal Code Article 407 ("Absence without leave from a military unit or place of service"), as it regarded him as a member of the military. "The defendant pleaded not guilty at the trial, telling the court that he did not consider himself a military serviceman, as he was actually kidnapped by Recruitment Office employees," the 9 March verdict notes.

Recruitment Office staff seized Klementiev in June 2025 as he was working in the fields and took him with other men to a camp in the forest. "It wasn't a military unit, there were just tents," the verdict notes. "They gave him a uniform and a backpack, didn't give him a weapon, and he didn't take the oath. He stayed there for 2 weeks, then left this place and went home to the city of Kherson." His absence was detected on 12 July 2025. Officials arrested him on 20 October 2025.

In a separate case, on 27 January 2026, Judge Nataliia Korolchuk of Kherson City Court found Klementiev guilty under Criminal Code Article 336 ("Refusing call-up for military service during mobilisation or in a special period, and for military service during call-up of reservists in a special period"). She sentenced him to three years' imprisonment.

"In connection with the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, the protection of the independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine acquires special importance and must be ensured by all possible means," the verdict notes. "The consequences of evasion of military service in these conditions through punishment must achieve such a goal that can prevent the commission of new criminal offenses by both the accused and other persons."

Both Klementiev and the First Deputy Head of Kherson Regional Prosecutor's Office appealed against the decision, according to court records. Kherson Appeal Court has set a hearing on the morning of 22 July.

Klementiev is currently being held at Mykolaiv Detention Centre.

Adventist's 5-year, 1-month jail term

On 10 June, Judge Volodymyr Solovei of Kozeletsk District Court of Chernihiv Region found Seventh-day Adventist Andrii Hryhorovych Skliar (born 31 October 1991) guilty under both Criminal Code Article 402, Part 4 and Article 409, Part 4. The Judge jailed him for a combined period of 5 years and one month, according to the decision seen by Forum 18.

Volodymyr Baidakov of the Specialised Prosecutor's Office in the Field of Defence of the Central Region in Kyiv led the prosecution case in court.

"We plan to file an appeal," Skliar's wife Daria told Forum 18 on 15 June. The appeal will be heard at Chernihiv Appeal Court. He will remain in the Detention Centre until the appeal is resolved.

Skliar was baptised in the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 2017. He heads the mission department of a congregation in the capital Kyiv.

On 4 July 2024, Skliar told the Kyiv District Military Administration that he could not undertake military service on grounds of conscience and asked for alternative civilian service. On 4 November 2024, he again asked the Kyiv District Military Administration for alternative civilian service.

The Recruitment Office called Skliar for a medical in November 2024, which deemed him fit to serve. As Daria Skliar told his trial, "they tried to take him in an unknown direction, threatened him with physical violence". She added that "he defended his position and asked to replace military service with alternative service".

"I cannot wear a military uniform and carry out orders that contradict the Law of God and church norms," Skliar wrote in his request for alternative civilian service in December 2024. "In accordance with Article 35 of Ukraine's Constitution, I ask for alternative non-military service."

"In the military unit, Skliar performed tasks that did not contradict his religious beliefs," his wife Daria was quoted in the court verdict. "Once a month and a half, A.H. Skliar was released for a day and a half to Kyiv, where he took part in a church service. A.H. Skliar agreed to perform military service duties if they did not contradict his religious beliefs."

In the unit, officers assigned Skliar "household duties". He refused the pay that is given to those called up.

On 28 October 2025, the unit commander ordered that Skliar and 13 other conscientious objectors swear the military oath, put on a uniform and take up arms in preparation to begin military training. He refused on religious grounds. Officials arrested him on 28 October 2025. They took him to the Detention Centre three days later.

"Serviceman A.H. Skliar, realising the socially dangerous nature of his action, foreseeing its socially dangerous consequences and wishing for their occurrence, that is, acting intentionally, while being in the specified place, openly refused to execute the written order of the commander of Military Unit [number]," the verdict reads.

The verdict adds: "The specified intentional actions of serviceman A.H. Sklyar, although they did not cause serious consequences, became a prerequisite for reducing the combat readiness of a military unit in war conditions, and also damaged the authority of military command bodies and are a dangerous act that violates the established order of subordination and military discipline, creates disorganisation and disorder in military units, and negatively affects the combat readiness and combat capability of military formations."

Forum 18 asked the press office at the Specialised Prosecutor's Office in the Field of Defence of the Central Region in Kyiv before the start of the working day of 16 June:
- why Prosecutor Baidakov asked for Skliar to be punished for refusing to perform military service on grounds of conscience;
- and, given that Skliar was not a soldier as he had not sworn the military oath, why Prosecutor Baidalov believed he should be punished as a soldier.
Forum 18 had received no response by the end of the working day in Kyiv of 16 June.

Skliar's address in the Detention Centre:

Chernihiv Oblast, 16000
m. Novhorod-Siverskyi
Vul. Mykolaivska 31
Novhorod-Siverskyi ustanova vikonannya pokaran No. 31

Denied religiously-appropriate food, prosecuted, on trial

Taras Romanovych Borteychuk (born 20 April 1983), who lives in Verkhovyna District of Ivano-Frankivsk Region, has been a Hare Krishna devotee since 2001. Despite his and his community's conscientious objection to bearing weapons, he accepted mobilisation on 3 March 2022, ten days after Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He was sent to a local unit of the Interior Ministry's National Guard, where he served with a weapon.

Following his treatment in the unit, in late 2023 Borteychuk appealed to the Parliamentary Human Rights Commissioner (Ombudsperson) in Kyiv, Dmytro Lubinets. "After the start of the armed aggression, he voluntarily joined the ranks of the territorial defence, but after enlisting in the service, he had a misunderstanding based on religious beliefs, because the service did not allow the usual regime of religiously permitted food and the performance of religious rites," Lubinets noted on Telegram on 6 November 2023. "Unable to consume food permitted by his religion, he did not eat or drink anything for several days."

"After another hunger strike," Lubinets added, "he reported that he could not stand in for duty because he was hungry and had no strength. This became the basis for initiating criminal proceedings against him and applying a preventive measure in the form of detention." Lubinets said his staff would be following Borteychuk's case.

Ivano-Frankivsk Specialised Prosecutor's Office in the Field of Defence of the Western Region submitted a case to Ivano-Frankivsk City Court against Borteychuk under Criminal Code Article 402, Part 4 and Article 407, Part 5 on 20 November 2023. The preliminary court hearing was held on 7 December 2023, according to court records. He was released on bail. The trial is expected to end with a verdict on 23 June 2026.

"Taking into account the conditions of service, the plaintiff decided to exercise his right, guaranteed by Article 35 of the Constitution of Ukraine, to replace military service with alternative (non-military) service, by submitting on 15 January 2024 a report to the commander of National Guard Unit [number] for dismissal from military service, and an application to the head of the Verkhovyna District State Administration and the head of the Regional State Administration for the replacement of military service with alternative (non-military) service due to religious beliefs." The unit commander refused his request on 3 February 2024, according to the subsequent court decision.

On 27 February 2024, Borteychuk's lawyer Nadiya Boichuk filed a suit on his behalf to Ivano-Frankivsk District Administrative Court for the actions of the National Guard Unit and the District State Administration to be declared unlawful. However, on 14 June 2024, Judge Taras Borshovsky rejected his suit, according to the decision seen by Forum 18.

Boichuk lodged appeals on Borteychuk's behalf to both the United Nations Human Rights Committee and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg (Applications No. 4297/25). "We appealed the unlawful refusal of discharge from military service based on religious beliefs," she told Forum 18 on 9 June 2026. However, both the European Court and the UN Committee rejected the applications at the admissibility stage. That is, they didn't even review the merits of the case - they simply refused to consider it."

The ECtHR declared Borteychuk's application inadmissible on 30 April 2025. On the right to a fair trial, it ruled that the court decisions "do not appear arbitrary or manifestly unreasonable". On the freedom of thought, conscience and religion, it ruled that "the matters complained of do not disclose any appearance of a violation of the rights and freedoms". (END)

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

More reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Russian-occupied Ukraine

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