David Smith, the government’s Special Envoy for Religious Freedom, visited Ukraine in July. In the country's occupied territories, people only can worship freely in Russian Orthodox Churches, he says.
UK Member of Parliament David Smith, addresses the lack of religious freedom in Russian occupied regions of Ukraine, in the House of Commons, 10 September 2026. / Image: [link]Parliament Live video[/link].
David Smith, a parliamentarian of the governing Labour party, shared with the House of Commons (the UK’s lower chamber in Westminster) concerns over the lack of religious freedom in Ukrainian regions occupied by Russia.
Smith is since December 2024 the United Kingdom’s Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief and visited Kyiv in July.
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In a question to the Secretary of State of Defence, Wes Streeting, he said: “While I was there, I heard from our Ukrainian partners how the Putin regime is weaponising the Russian Orthodox Church, particularly in the occupied territories; no one there has freedom of religion or belief, unless they are in the Russian Orthodox Church.”.
That lack of freedom is suffered by “other Christians or Tatars in Crimea”, Smith added. He then asked if the UK government agreed that “a key dividing line in this conflict is freedom of religion or belief and wider human rights—the line between a free, open Ukrainian democracy, and an increasingly authoritarian Russia”.
David Smith is Member of Parliament for North Notherthumberland, and prior to be elected to the parliament in 2024, led the homelessness charity Oasis Community Housing. He has also worked for many years with the Bible Society and the Christian NGO Tearfund.
The government’s minister for Defence responded that he agreed and added that such misuse of Christianity does also happen in the UK. “If people are going to wear the Cross, they should at least bother to read the Gospel before preaching the contrary message”, Streeting said.
The Defence Secretary of the UK government was referring to the rise of far-right groups in the UK using Christian symbolism to express anti-migrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric.
A recent survey found that a majority of evangelical Christians in the UK are “worried” with the growing influence of so-called Christian nationalism.
Since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine after Russia’s invasion in February 2022, Christians in Eastern Ukraine have denounced constant violations of their freedom of worship.
Evangelical Focus has closely followed the situation in Ukraine, where Russia has attacked evangelical churches in Kyiv, Balakliya, Zaporizhzhia and other cities.
Premises of Christian aid projects and theological seminaries have also been targeted by Russian missiles.
Baptists churches in Eastern Ukraine have been raided by Russian forces and pastors fined for “missionary activity” even in Ukrainian territory.
Meanwhile in Russia, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, has supported the invasion, spiritualising the military campaigns with Christian language and promoted a mix of the Russian nation and Orthodox Christianity under the ideology of ‘Russki Mir’.
Ukrainian Christians have often shared in other parts of Europe first-hand testimonies of survival and work to support the vulnerable in the midst of war.
The European Evangelical Alliance and other Christian representative bodies in European countries have recurringly expressed their condemnation of the Russian violence and lamented the violation of human rights, including freedom of conscience, freedom of religion and freedom of worship.
The leaders of the World Evangelical Alliance visited Kyiv in August 2026 for the annual Prayer Breakfast events.
The Lausanne Movement Europe organises regular prayer meetings for the situation in Ukraine and has also visited churches in the country.
Evangelical initiatives have joined the efforts to host Ukrainian refugees fleeing their home country.
In Russia, Christian leaders who have expressed their opposition to the war have been prosecuted.
Read all ‘Evangelical Focus’ reports, interviews and analysis on the war in Ukraine.
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