Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is exterminating religious freedom, signalling a return by Moscow to Soviet-era levels of persecution of faith, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has said.

Sviatoslav Shevchuk said he was alarmed at the destruction of religious buildings and the arrests and killings of faith leaders.

“Today, in the occupied territory, there is not one Catholic priest. All my [Eastern Catholic] priests, even the Roman Catholic priests, were all expelled or imprisoned,” Shevchuk told Newsweek in an interview.

“Around 50 religious ministers, Protestant pastors, Orthodox priests, Catholic priests have been imprisoned or killed,” Shevchuk said. He added that Russia is returning “to the time of the Soviet Union where all of those religion were prohibited or overcontrolled, or simply destroyed.

“In the Soviet Union, [dictator Joseph] Stalin completely destroyed our church, imprisoned all our bishops and all our priests who would not sign an agreement to become Orthodox,” added Shevchuk, who started his priestly formation at an underground seminary in the USSR.

“Even in those territories where Russia were not able to come and occupy, almost 600 churches, places of worship, synagogues were destroyed.”