Overview
- The Countering Russia’s War on Faith Act, introduced Thursday in the House with a Senate companion, orders joint State and Defense reports on Russian religious repression in Ukraine and authorizes the president to apply existing sanctions to named offenders.
- Lawmakers cite more than 600 damaged or destroyed churches, mosques, synagogues, and other sites since 2022, along with over 50 killed clergy, as the evidence base for the bill’s accountability push.
- The proposal lists communities facing harm, including Protestants, Catholics, Muslims, Latter-day Saints, Crimean Tatars, and Orthodox groups not aligned with the Russian Orthodox Church, with reports of raids, forced re-registration, and prosecutions under occupation.
- Ukraine’s foreign minister welcomed the legislation as overdue, saying Russian authorities persecute clergy, destroy places of worship, ban whole faiths, and weaponize religion to control occupied areas.
- Debate has surfaced over the bill’s treatment of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, with critics in conservative outlets saying it is improperly grouped with Moscow-linked bodies, while backers focus the measure on communities not tied to the Russian Orthodox Church; the bill now awaits action in Congress.