For years until the outbreak of war in Ukraine, Father Ioann Burdin served as a priest in the Russian village of Karabanovo, 370 km (230 miles) northeast of Moscow. In spring 2022, Burdin denounced the conflict in a sermon to his parishioners and in comments online, saying Christians could not just stand by "when a brother kills a brother". He said the blood of Ukrainian civilians would be on the hands of Russia's rulers, its soldiers and everyone who approved of the war or simply kept silent.