![](\"https:\/\/www.christiantoday.co.in\/files\/cache\/image\/2\/40\/24048_w_375_317.jpg\")
An evangelical Christian has been imprisoned in Russia because of his refusal to fight in Ukraine on religious grounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Vyacheslav Reznichenko, from\u00a0Zarubino, eastern Russia, has been sentenced to two years and six months in a penal colony, reports\u00a0CNE<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Several attempts to appeal the sentence have been rejected.\u00a0<\/p>\n The plight of the married father was shared by the International Union of Evangelical Churches on Telegram.\u00a0<\/p>\n In July, another Christian pacifist,\u00a0Andrey Kapatsyna, was\u00a0sentenced by<\/a>\u00a0a\u00a0Vladivostok court to two years and 10 months in prison for refusing to fight in Ukraine.<\/p>\n It was\u00a0reported in June<\/a>\u00a0that the Russian Orthodox Church opposes pacifism and regards it as heretical and incompatible with the Church’s teachings.<\/p>\n Its position was outlined in documents submitted for a church court hearing in the case of Russian Orthodox priest Fr John Burdin, who criticised the Russian invasion of Ukraine in a sermon and public statement.<\/p>\n In March last year he was arrested, charged and fined by a civil court for “public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the Russian Federation armed forces to defend the interests of the Russian Federation and its citizens”.<\/p>\n This year, a church court found against him and he was banned from the priesthood until he publicly repented, which he has refused to do.<\/p>\n “The court saw significant ecclesiological errors in his writings \u2014 including a denial of the holiness and saving powers of the Russian Orthodox Church,” the judgment said.<\/p>\n “His activities sowed distrust of the Church and were aimed at alienating believers \u2014 all of which was regarded by the court as violating the priestly oath.”<\/p>\n In August,\u00a0Forum 18<\/a>\u00a0reported penalties against another Christian pacifist. Musician and teacher Anna Chagina was fined and banned from posting on the internet after she criticised Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n In the same month,\u00a055-year-old priest, Fr Ioann Kurmoyarov, was sentenced to three years in prison and banned him from posting on the internet for two years.<\/p>\n In March, 63-year-old Christian, Mikhail Simonov, was sentenced to seven years in prison for publishing anti-war comments on the Russian social network\u00a0VKontakte. His appeal was rejected and\u00a0Forum 18 reported<\/a>\u00a0that by early September he was on his way to a labour camp.<\/p>\n Republished from Christian Today UK<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n