Occupants in Crimea are destroying the Cathedral of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine

On the 8th of April, the dome of the Cathedral of the Holy and Equal-to-the-Apostles Volodymyr and Olha was demolished in occupied Simferopol by the decision of the Russian occupation administration. These steps by the occupiers are a part of the systematic destruction of Ukrainian identity and everything Ukrainian in the occupied Crimea, as well as the continuation of the persecution of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in order to ensure that only religious structures loyal to the Kremlin, including the Russian Orthodox Church, remain in the occupied territory. 

Since the beginning of the temporary occupation of Crimea in 2014, the occupation administration has been putting administrative, judicial and forceful pressure on the Crimean Eparchy of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine to stop its activities and force it out of the temporarily occupied Crimea. 

The result of the pressure on the Crimean Eparchy of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine was a sharp decrease in its parishes and priests. Before the occupation began, there were 49 religious communities in Crimea (parishes, missions, fraternities, and a monastery), and by the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation on 24 February 2022, there were only 7. 

For example, on the 23rd of July 2020, the Russian occupiers handed over to Metropolitan Klyment of the Crimean Eparchy of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine a decree to demolish the church in Yevpatoria. At that time, US Ambassador to the OSCE James Stuart Gilmore strongly condemned the illegal actions of the occupation administration in Crimea, called the occupiers’ decision to demolish the church of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in Yevpatoria unacceptable and described the occupiers’ “court order” as a blatant violation of fundamental freedoms. 

After the start of the full-scale invasion and the launch of Putin’s mobilisation, Russia began to persecute the priests of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in Crimea and illegally issue them with military summonses, forcing them to leave the territory of the occupied Crimea. Metropolitan Klyment stated that the Crimean Eparchy had essentially ceased to exist in the face of the illegal occupation of Crimea and then a full-scale war unleashed by the Russian Federation. In May 2023, the occupiers seized the Cathedral of the Holy and Equal-to-the-Apostles Volodymyr and Olha in Simferopol.

Since the beginning of the occupation of the Crimea, Russia has systematically persecuted and destroyed all religious communities, both Christian and Muslim. Russia violates the basic right of Ukrainian citizens under occupation to freedom of religion, which is also a violation of international law.