A coalition of bipartisan lawmakers introduced a bill Thursday to shed light on the alleged persecution of Christians and other religions by Russian forces in occupied Ukraine — but it leaves out one Orthodox sect facing pressure from all sides.
The Countering Russia’s War on Faith Act, introduced by Republican South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson, would require the secretaries of state and defense to work with the director of national intelligence (DNI) and provide a joint report on Russia’s suppression of religious liberties in occupied territories and Ukraine, according to a statement from Wilson. The bill also directs the president to implement sanctions on those found responsible for violating religious freedom.
During an August visit to Ukraine, the Daily Caller found that, due to hostile conditions in the occupied territory, specifics of the persecution have been difficult to report — making it hard for families and church leaders to assess the situation accurately. Those able to communicate with people under Russia’s control kept information vague for fear of retaliation. (RELATED: Ukrainian Christians Allege Soviet-Era Persecution By Russia, Bombings Of Churches)
“Russia is waging a war on faith, and it’s doing so behind a wall of censorship and intimidation,” Steven Moore and Colby Barrett, producers of “A Faith Under Siege,” told the Caller. “In the occupied territories, Russia is disappearing, torturing and killing pastors, destroying churches and cutting off religious communities from the outside world so the truth can’t get out.
“This bill will bring a spotlight to Russia’s atrocious religious freedom violations and hold the perpetrators accountable,” Moore and Barrett added.
Republican Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon argued the act will enable authorities to hold perpetrators of religious persecution accountable.
He blasted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, claiming it includes a “deliberate campaign to suppress and persecute religious communities,” according to Wilson’s press release.
The bill lists targeted groups as: “Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Crimean Tatar, and Orthodox Christian communities not aligned with the Russian Orthodox Church.”
The key phrase seems to be “Orthodox Christian communities not aligned with the Russian Orthodox Church.”
This photograph shows the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary destroyed by air strike in the village of Novoekonomichne, Donetsk region, on July 30, 2024, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine. (Photo by ANATOLII STEPANOV/AFP via Getty Images)
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), one of two Orthodox communities in Ukraine, has spent much of the war trying to prove it has severed administrative ties with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), but with little success. UOC leaders and parishioners previously alleged to the Caller that their leaders are being falsely arrested as their churches face seizures and the threat of total liquidation amid a public campaign framing parishioners as “supporters of the ‘Russian world’ who support the killing of Ukrainian citizens.”
The bill claims the ROC, led by Putin-ally Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, has framed the invasion as a “holy war,” saying that if a soldier dies in combat, “this sacrifice washes away all the sins that a person has committed.”
Democrat Road Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse reiterated these claims in the statement, saying, “Putin’s murderous regime has repeatedly bombed places of worship, murdered clergy members, and persecuted Ukrainian communities not aligned with the Putin-allied Russian Orthodox Church.”
The UOC traces its origins to the 17th-century ROC, but UOC leaders previously told the Caller they are no longer under its control and only share canonical ties. Those ties underpin the UOC’s claim to apostolic authority, and followers believe severing them would delegitimize their faith.
Viktor Yelensky, head of Ukraine’s State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience, told the Caller in August he was unconvinced the UOC is unaffiliated with the ROC. He pointed to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), which was founded in 2019 with endorsements from the Ukrainian government and recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
The UOC is still fighting for its legal identity and property rights in Ukrainian and European courts as clergy face arrests and parishioners worship in underground “catacombs” following violent church seizures. (RELATED: Christians Forced To Worship In Catacombs Allege Ukrainian Government Is Persecuting Their Faith)
4/8 🧵 Yet many say their faith has only grown stronger. Across Cherkasy, displaced parishioners now gather in underground bunkers. One group, forced out of St. Michael’s, worships by candlelight in a basement with no electricity. Another worships in an old underground lumber… pic.twitter.com/qpdtcEdasN
— Derek VanBuskirk (@DerekVBK) August 23, 2025
“Russia perversely portrays Ukraine as a persecutor of Christians, when it is Moscow that has destroyed over 600 churches, synagogues, mosques and places of worship in Ukraine throughout this war,” Democratic Ohio Rep. Marcy Kaptur said in the statement, in part.
The bill states that more than 600 religious buildings have been destroyed or damaged since 2022 and that Russia has killed more than 50 Ukrainian religious leaders.
Neither the bill nor the statement notes that UOC clergy deaths and church destruction account for a majority of those figures, according to reports.
By the end of 2025, Mission Eurasia found that Russia killed 67 Ukrainian clergy as of spring 2025. In a separate database from December 2025, Russians had killed 54 civilian clergy “who continued their ministry until the end,” according to the report. The UOC accounted for 22 deaths, while Pentecostals had 14 and the OCU ranked fourth with six deaths.
One UOC priest, Mykola Palahniuk, was allegedly killed after distributing humanitarian aid to flood victims following the destruction of a hydropower plant by Russian artillery, Mission Eurasia reported.
By the end of 2023, at least 630 religious buildings had been destroyed by Russian forces, with the UOC suffering the most at 187. The UOC had also suffered more than three times the destruction of OCU churches, according to the Institute for Religious Freedom.
Although all religions in the occupied territories face Russian oppression and are forced to appease authorities or worship underground, the persecution of the UOC is distinct.
Persecution.org reported that the ROC has co-opted UOC-linked structures in occupied areas, allegedly using them to promote Russian propaganda and administrative control where traditional services were previously held.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed that while Russia eliminated all OCU communities in Russian-occupied Crimea, it also annexed eight UOC dioceses to the ROC.
The ministry also stated that one UOC priest, Kostiantyn Maksimov, was sentenced in 2024 to 14 years in prison on “fabricated espionage charges” after allegedly refusing to transfer his parish to the ROC.
TOPSHOT – This photograph shows a destroyed Orthodox monastery in recently released Dolina village, Donetsk region, on September 22, 2022. (Photo by Anatolii Stepanov / AFP via Getty Images)
Although the UOC is included in the bill’s damage reports, it remains excluded from the administration’s findings, as that is reserved for “religious minorities not affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church.” The bill also frequently groups the ROC and UOC together as “Moscow-based religious institutions,” framing UOC parishioners as being one with their oppressors.
Catherine Whiteford, an Orthodox Christian and co-chair of the Young Republican National Federation, faced pushback from Wilson in November for joining a delegation to promote the UOC and Orthodoxy on Capitol Hill. She asserted the UOC should “absolutely” be included in the bill and its subsequent report, adding that the situation should be monitored regardless of who it is against.
“The destruction of churches, the killing of clergy and the suppression of believers—wherever they occur—are grave crimes that demand accountability. Russia must answer for its actions in Ukraine,” Whiteford told the Caller.
“But it is deeply concerning that Rep. Joe Wilson shows no comparable urgency in addressing the well-documented erosion of religious freedom by the Ukrainian government,” Whiteford said. “He rightly condemns the use of religious sites for military purposes by Russian forces—yet remains silent when Ukrainian forces have done the same.”
Whiteford added that Wilson and his Ukrainian backers treat the UOC as collaborators despite being a primary target, saying the congressman “cannot claim to defend religious liberty while ignoring—and actively covering for—its violation by your allies,” calling it political convenience masquerading as principle. (RELATED: Ukraine’s Holy War Comes To America)
Rep. Joe Wilson did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment.