Shalt Not Kill (Russia)

Shalt Not Kill (Russia) emerged as one of the initiatives of the Belarusian Christian Vision group. Initially, it was a media group analysing the reaction of Christian communities in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and other neighbouring countries to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The group's members studied the methods of Christian resistance in Russia to military actions; religious propaganda used to justify aggression; structural changes in the confessional landscape of Russia and Ukraine against the backdrop of military actions, etc.

Since persecutions were used against citizens who expressed disagreement with the actions of Russian troops, the group got engaged in human rights activities, in particular, monitoring cases of persecution of Christians for their anti-war views and organising assistance to them.

The initiative maintains several monitoring lists:

• Persecution of Christians by religious organisations and authorities for their anti-war position or support for Ukraine in defence against aggression;^[1]
• killed clergy and church workers of Christian churches in Ukraine;^[2]
• priests of the Russian Orthodox Church serving as chaplains in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation;^[3]
• conscientious objectors to military service in Ukraine.^[4]

Various foreign media outlets have referred to these lists.^[5][6] The monitoring is also used by Russian independent media to assess repressive practices in Russia against believers' anti-war views.^{[7][8][9][10]}

The products of the initiative's research have been used by local^[11] and foreign^[12] human rights organisations, as well as scholars.^{[13][14][15][16]}