1 Institute for the Study of War and AEI’s Critical Threats Program 2023
Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, April 9, 2023
George Barros, Kateryna Stepanenko with Noel Mikkelsen, Thomas Bergeron, Daniel
Mealie, Will Kielm, and Mitchell Belcher
April 9, 6 pm ET
Click here to see ISW’s interactive map of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This map is
updated daily alongside the static maps present in this report.
Click here to access ISW’s archive of interactive time-lapse maps of the Russian
invasion of Ukraine. These maps complement the static control-of-terrain map that
ISW produces daily by showing a dynamic frontline. ISW will update this time-lapse
map archive monthly.
ISW is publishing a special edition campaign assessment today, April 9. This report
discusses Russia’s religious repressions throughout occupied Ukraine since the start of
the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Russia continues to
weaponize religion in an effort to discredit Ukraine in the international arena and is
using information operations about religion to advance military objectives despite
itself committing gross violations of religious freedom in occupied Ukraine. Russia may
use the upcoming Orthodox Easter holiday on April 16 in an effort to delay Ukrainian
counteroffensives by calling for a ceasefire out of respect for the Orthodox religion
despite the fact that Russia has shown no such respect for religion in areas its forces
occupy. Russian religious persecutions are likely also part of an ongoing Russian
cultural genocide and ethnic cleansing campaign aimed at extirpating the idea of an
independent Ukrainian nationality or Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Russian occupation authorities are likely conducting a campaign of systematic religious
persecution in occupied Ukraine. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022
Russian soldiers or occupations authorities have reportedly committed at least 76 acts of religious
persecution in Ukraine.[1] Russian authorities have closed, nationalized, or forcefully converted at
least 26 places of worship to the Kremlin-controlled Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow
Patriarchate, killed or seized at least 29 clergy or religious leaders, and looted, desecrated, or
deliberately destroyed at least 13 places of worship in occupied Ukraine.[2] These cases of religious
repression are not likely isolated incidents but rather part of a deliberate campaign to systematically
eradicate “undesirable” religious organizations in Ukraine and promote the Moscow Patriarchate.
