Russia has exported the worst practices of religious intolerance to the territories it occupies in Ukraine, according to the US based Helsinki Commission.

In hearings in Washington DC this week on “Russia’s persecution of Ukrainian Christians”, the Commission said Russia has engaged in routine kidnapping, hostage-taking, violence against civilians, and suppression of Ukrainian culture and language.

“Occupying authorities under orders from the Kremlin have been particularly harsh toward Protestant Christians and institutions, often painting them as agents of the United States,” a press release said.

Mark Sergeev, a Ukrainian evangelical pastor who escaped from occupied Melitopol testified that conditions in Russian-occupied Ukraine are worse now than they were during Soviet times.

Penn State professor Catherine Wanner told the commission there is “no place for Protestants in the Russian world.” According to Wanner, who previously worked for the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University, evangelicals in Russia are considered “apostates,” “traitors,” and “spies.”