Secret Protestant Churches in Donetsk: Ukraine's Religious War

[snooper2]

VICE


(fuck putin)

Published on Mar 19, 2015
The war in eastern Ukraine hasn't just been about territory — religion has deepened the divide. In Donetsk, Protestants are being forced to conduct their services in apartments, persecuted by pro-Russia separatists who believe there’s only room for one religion in the region: Russian Orthodoxy.

VICE News correspondent Simon Ostrovsky traveled to Donetsk to attend secret Protestant churches, and spoke with members of the Donetsk People’s Republic as well as the Orthodox Church to find out whether the DPR’s vision for the rebel-controlled region includes the coexistence of religious beliefs.

[Purveyor]

1. Simon Ostrovsky = Right Sector. No agenda there, uh nope, none indeed. eom

[snooper2]

2. some here wouldn't appreciate real reporting

if it smacked them in the ear-

[Igel]

3. Not just from him.

It's been reported in the Crimea, against protestant and breakaway Ukrainian orthodox churches.

As well as for the last 6 months or more in Luhans'k, Donets'k, and other places in the Donbas under rebel control. It doesn't help that "Cossacks" are among the fighting force, and they fight not just for country but for orthodoxy and that the Uniate is still feared and hated by some (even though it's a historical artefact).

It also doesn't help that the reports are they're teaching "Russian culture" in some schools, and that includes not just Orthodoxy but specifically Russian orthodoxy. No Lutherans need apply--not to mention the even worse-off baptists or pentecostals.

Ad hominem fallacy fail.