OCCUPIED UKRAINE: "If we don't register, they'll come to every service and stop it"

Russian Police and military officers (some with automatic weapons) raided Council of Churches Baptists' Sunday worship in Krasnodon on 25 January. "They said that if we don't register, they'll come to every service and stop it taking place," Pastor Vladimir Rytikov said of his interrogation at the police station. The same day, Police Anti-Extremism officers raided another nearby church. In September 2025, officials raided Muslim prayers in Mariupol and fined two imams. Between July and December