Maybe, you missed this article that would give an answer
NATIONAL REVIEW:
“Moreover, the USCIRF noted, “in Russian-occupied para-states of eastern Ukraine, religious freedom is at the whim of armed militias not beholden to any legal authority.” As war zones, the “People’s Republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk “remain heavily militarized war zones policed by parallel ‘Ministries of State Security.’” Unsurprisingly, “basic human rights, including freedom of religious belief, are under intense pressure in these territories.” Churches must register, but no churches that are non-Orthodox or that belong to the Kiev patriarchate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church have been approved. Members of non-favored denominations “have been subject to arrest, torture, and murder. Churches were seized or destroyed, and parishioners were intimidated.” Whatever Russia’s justification for intervening in Ukraine, the suppression of freedom of conscience cannot be justified.
The crimes promoted by Moscow are detailed in a new report, “Religious Freedom at Gunpoint: Russian Terror in the Occupied Territories of Eastern Ukraine,” from the Institute for Religious Freedom, underwritten by the Institute of Geopolitical Division and Mission Eurasia. The IRF found that abuses began as soon as pro-Russian separatists took control in April 2014. Anti-Semitic pamphlets first appeared. Then came “kidnapping and illegal imprisonment, emotional abuse, physical torture and even murders of unwelcome clergymen and believers of ‘non-traditional denominations.’”
The result is “a real nightmare for local religious communities that did not experience such persecution even during the Soviet terror times. This was also accompanied by the seizure of churches and houses of worship, some of which were used as firing positions and barracks for militants, mercenaries and regular Russian troops.”
https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/04/ukraine-religious-liberty-moscow-russian-orthodox-church/
” religious freedom is at the whim of armed militias not beholden to any legal authority.”
Twice you missed this significant element of your citation.
It is not Russia doing this. The people they armed, and who reside there, are doing it.
See post #18. What’s your thoughts about it? Or maybe it is a rhetorical question?