**Russia’s Persecution of Ukrainian Clergy: A Genocidal Campaign**
The recent persecution of Ukrainian clergy in occupied Melitopol is a stark reminder of the Kremlin’s long history of targeting Ukraine’s spiritual leaders. As we delve into Raphael Lemkin’s text, “Soviet Genocide in Ukraine,” written in 1953, it becomes clear that this is not an isolated incident, but rather part of a larger, more sinister campaign to destroy the Ukrainian nation.
Lemkin, a Polish-American lawyer who coined the term “genocide,” wrote about the Soviet regime’s systematic persecution of Ukrainians, including the targeting of the intelligentsia and the spiritual leaders. He noted that the Kremlin’s tactics were designed to paralyze the rest of the body by attacking the national brain, or in this case, the churches and priests.
Fast forward to today, and we see a disturbing pattern emerge in occupied Melitopol. Local believers, including Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox Christians, have been banned from practicing their faith, stripped of property, and arrested, interrogated, and exiled. This systematic persecution is not merely a restriction on religious freedoms, but rather an attack on the very soul of the Ukrainian nation.
The parallels with Lemkin’s text are striking. Just as the Kremlin attempted to absorb the churches in the 1920s, today’s Russian authorities have offered pastors and priests opportunities to publicly support them or become informants. Only after these efforts failed did they decide to simply eliminate them, fully following the model described by Lemkin.
Moreover, while restrictions on religious freedoms are typical for Russia, the persecution in occupied Ukraine goes far beyond what occurs inside Russia itself. This suggests that Russia is crafting a new, harsher policy specifically for Ukrainians, one that amounts to an attack on the nation as a group, with the broader aim of destroying the Ukrainian nation in whole or in part.
The investigation into the persecution of Ukrainian Christian churches in Melitopol is a direct continuation of our previous documentary, which laid out the genocidal intent behind Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The story gives yet another reason to finally dare to use the very word that Lemkin coined – genocide – to describe Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
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The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Kyiv Independent.
