Occupation authorities of Crimea once again instruct to dismantle the OCU church and fine Metropolitan Klyment
This is stated in the message of the representative office of the President of Ukraine in Crimea on November 3. They stressed that this decision is connected with the desire of the Russian Federation to oust the Ukrainian church from the occupied Crimea.
"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 Church of the Burning Bush in Yevpatoria are aimed at ousting the Ukrainian Church from the temporarily occupied Crimean Peninsula. Russia wants that no Ukrainian Church was present in Crimea, an important center of unity of Ukrainians. The representative office will take all possible steps and actions to protect the Ukrainian church: information about systemic infringement of the right to religious freedom and encroachments on the property of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in Crimea is communicated with the diplomatic corps and international organizations, the facts of violations are collected and provided for inclusion in the annual resolution of the UN General Assembly on Crimea. The representative office is in constant contact with Crimean law enforcement officers who record crimes committed by the Russian Federation and its occupation administrations regarding religious freedoms in the framework of criminal proceedings," said Anton Korynevych, Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
On July 23, 2020, Metropolitan Klyment of the Crimean Diocese of the OCU was handed an order issued by the Russian invaders on the demolition the church in Yevpatoria. In November 2019, the so-called "Yevpatoria City Court" ruled 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:
"Jointly and severally oblige the defendants – the community in the name of the Most Holy Image of the Mother of God "The Burning Bush" and the administration of the Crimean Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to vacate a municipal land plot with a total area of 30.25 square meters, though dismantling the building erected on it," the occupation "court" rules.
