The Department of the Crimean Diocese of the OCU is accused of unfulfilled decisions of the so-called "Yevpatoria City Court" regarding the dismantling of the parish Church of the Image of the Mother of God "Burning Bush".
This was announced on December 2 in the presidential mission in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Novynarnya reports.
It is noted that Metropolitan Klyment of Simferopol and Crimea received a package of documents from the so-called "Department of the Federal Bailiff Service for the Republic of Crimea" regarding the administrative offense.
"In connection with the non-enforcement of the 'court' decision on November 3 2020 " by the Senior Bailiff in Yevpatoria " V. N. Moroz a resolution was issued, according to which the Ukrainian Church was found guilty of not dismantling the church and therefore must pay an administrative fine in the amount of RUR 30,000," the report says.
In December, another protocol was added to this decision on a new fine of 50 thousand rubles and a new period granted for dismantling the parish Church of the Image of the Mother of God "Burning Bush" – December 3, 2020.
"The Representative Office of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea condemns the latest violations of the occupying state of the Russian Federation against the Crimean Diocese of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and its faithful. The decision of the so-called "court "and further demands to dismantle the Burning Bush Church in Yevpatoria are aimed at ousting the Ukrainian Church from the temporarily occupied Crimean Peninsula. Russia wants there to be no Ukrainian Church in Crimea, an important center of unity of Ukrainians," the Representative Office stressed.
They also recalled that on July 23, 2020, Metropolitan Klyment of the Crimean Diocese of the OCU was handed a decree by the Russian invaders to demolish the church in Yevpatoria.
In November 2019, the so-called "Yevpatoria City Court" decided to demolish the wooden church of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the construction of which was started even before the occupation of the peninsula by Russia: "to oblige in solidarity the defendants of the community in the name of the purest image of the Mother of God" Burning Bush" and the administration of the Crimean Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to release a municipal land plot with a total area of 30.25 square meters by dismantling the building erected on it, "the decision of the occupation 'court' said.
The Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol said it would provide an appropriate legal assessment of these actions of representatives of the occupation authorities as part of the criminal proceedings.
"Such actions of the occupiers are a direct violation of international humanitarian law and another confirmation of discrimination and pressure on the only Ukrainian religious community in Crimea," the office added.