Southern Ukraine
According to a 2016 survey of religion in Ukraine conducted by the Razumkov Center, around 65.7% of the population of southern Ukraine declared to be believers in any religion, while 7.4% declared to be non-believers, and 3.2% declared to be atheists and agnostics. the study also found that 77.6% of the total Southern Ukraine population declared to be Christians (71.0% Eastern Orthodox, 5.1% simply Christians, 0.5% Latin Rite Catholics, 0.53% members of various Protestant churches, 0.5% members of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church), and 0.5% were Jewish. Not religious and other believers not identifying with any of the listed major religious institutions constituted about 24.7% of the population.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Ukraine
Since 1922, Ukraine was part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) under communist control, which restricted most religious institutions. Near the end of the Soviet Union, a new law was passed granting freedom of individual religious practice and allowing independent religious organizations. During this time of change, the first LDS missionaries arrived in Ukraine. The president of the Austria Vienna East Mission, Howard L. Biddulph, visited in June 1991 and Ukraine's first branch was organized in Kyiv with 40 members. In September of that year, Boyd K. Packer and Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles visited, so that Packer could dedicate the nation for missionary preaching, and the LDS Church was officially registered with the Ukrainian government. In early 1992, shortly after Ukraine's withdraw from the Soviet Union, the Ukraine Kiev Mission was created with 35 missionaries, and Biddulph serving as its first president. Another mission was created in Donetsk in July 1993.