Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kyiv and all Ukraine believes that the Russian government of the Crimea is trying to completely oust the Ukrainian Church and compares the situation on the peninsula with "Stalin's times". He said this in the Radio Liberty program "Saturday Interview", according to the website Krym.Realii.
Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kyiv and all Ukraine believes that the Russian government of the Crimea is trying to completely oust the Ukrainian Church and compares the situation on the peninsula with "Stalin's times". He said this in the Radio Liberty program "Saturday Interview", according to the website Krym.Realii.
"In Crimea, the Russian authorities, the provisional authorities, are trying to completely oust our presence. Now the fight is being waged for the eviction of Bishop Klyment from the diocesan administration and the Cathedral under the guise of repairing. And another more absurd decision was made by the court in Yevpatoria, that our parishioners should demolish the temple, the temple structure on their own. This is reminiscent of the old Stalinist times of the USSR when churches were destroyed. That is, the atheists destroyed churches, and now we see it in the occupied territories of the Crimea and Donbass," said Metropolitan Epifaniy.
The Metropolitan also noted that the OCU regularly draws the attention of the international community and the Ukrainian authorities to the problem of oppression of the Ukrainian Church in Crimea.
"We do everything we can. When I was in the United States, I noted that there are ongoing prosecutions, and we ask the international community to express concern. And, as far as we know, a bill has already been registered in the Congress (of the USA - KR) that the right to worship is violated here in the occupied territories of Crimea and Donbas. Therefore, we will continue to appeal to international institutions and sound the alarm here in Ukraine, so that our Ukrainian government will join this process," the head of the OCU said.