Occupiers seize only church belonging to OCU in Simferopol

On March 27, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in Crimea suffered a new encroachment on freedom of religion by the occupation authorities. Archbishop Yevstratiy (Zorya) of Nizhyn and Chernihiv wrote this on his Facebook page, according to Priamyy.

“Today, the Office of the Crimean Diocese of the Local Ukrainian Orthodox Church received a letter from the occupation “Ministry of Land and Property Relations” on early termination of the lease agreement for a building where the only church of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is located in Simferopol. The reason is the alleged nonpayment of rent in the amount of RUR 2,000. They demand to compensate losses and pay a penalty “to the budget of the republic” in the amount of RUR 2,000, as well as apply to the "court" with a suit for the termination of the lease. And all that despite the fact that the payment was made long ago, Zorya writes.

According to him, the simultaneous attack of Russian security forces against the Crimean Tatars and the next step of the occupiers in the direction of destroying the presence of the Ukrainian Church are the events of the same nature. Occupiers continue eliminating those not loyal [to them].

Yusuf Kurkchi, Deputy Minister for Temporary Occupied Territories, said that the occupation authorities are putting the "terrorist people" label on the Crimean Tatar people to level all their claims regarding the occupation of the peninsula by Russia.

On March 27, Russian security forces in occupied Crimea raided 25 houses of Crimean Tatar activists.