"Authorities must address the issues of ethnic Ukrainians in Crimea," - OCU Metropolitan

Metropolitan Klyment of Simferopol and Crimea (OCU) stated this at a press conference in Kyiv, according to Ukrinform.

"The government must address the problems of ethnic Ukrainians in Crimea. For 1.5 years now, a bill has been under consideration in the Verkhovna Rada regarding the prohibition of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine. Today, 83 percent of Ukrainian citizens believe that the state should intervene in this process. We are waiting for this law to be adopted," said the metropolitan.

He added that the government should also implement the relevant government resolution, which provides for the transfer of premises in temporarily occupied Simferopol to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

Metropolitan Klyment urged Ukrainian security forces to consider that in the liberated territories of Ukraine and areas under threat of occupation, many churches of the Moscow Patriarchate operate. Priests who were under occupation provided services to the occupying "authorities" and Russian military, which may pose a threat to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and those currently there, he noted.

The metropolitan also proposed to the government the necessity of creating an interdepartmental advisory and consultative body under the Cabinet of Ministers to formulate and implement state policy regarding the preservation and protection of the rights and freedoms of the Ukrainian ethnic community in Crimea.