UKRAINE CRISIS

Beaten and threatened: the 'Donetsk People's Republic' turns on city's priests. Pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine have declared their loyalty to Orthodoxy - and all other faiths are suspect.

Praying for peace can be a dangerous endeavour for Christians in Donetsk, especially if they happen not to follow the Russian Orthodox Church.

The self-declared “People’s Republic”, which controls this Ukrainian city and much of the surrounding region, proclaims Orthodoxy to be its official religion. Inside their occupied headquarters building, leaders of the pro-Russian rebellion display portraits of St Nicholas and the glittering iconography of their faith.

But all other Churches are viewed with deep suspicion. Having turned on journalists, trade unionists and anyone who favours a united Ukraine, the “People’s Republic” has found a new target in the form of priests who do not share its religion.

Father Sergei Kosyak from the Gospel Church traditionally joins a “prayer marathon” after Easter every year. When prayers were being said around a tent in central Donetsk on May 23, however, Fr Kosyak found himself confronted by 15 rebels.

“We were praying for peace in Ukraine - and we had a banner with the Ukrainian flag,” he remembered. “This angered the representatives of the ‘People’s Republic’. They pointed guns at us while some of them took down the tent and threw it into the river.”