Since the beginning of the new stage of the war, Russian invaders have already destroyed 44 religious buildings, mostly Orthodox churches, in 7 regions of Ukraine.
Head of the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience Olena Bohdan stated this during an online press conference in Ukrinform.
"Kremlin propagandists are cynically disguising their own imperial ambitions with theses of defending Orthodoxy, while an aggressive attack by Russian troops is destroying Orthodox churches and other shrines in Ukraine's religious communities. Unfortunately, we must state that according to the updated information, as of today our service already has data on at least 44 buildings of spiritual significance in at least 7 regions of Ukraine where certain destructions took place. In some cases, the buildings were completely destroyed, including historic temples, some were partially damaged when, for example, a missile hit a part of the building," said Ms. Bohgdan.
She specified that buildings of spiritual significance in Kyiv, Donetsk, Zhytomyr, Zaporizhia, Luhansk, Kharkiv and Chernihiv regions were damaged.
"In the vast majority of these cases, it was Orthodox churches that suffered. Also, 3 Protestant religious buildings, 3 Jewish, 1 Roman Catholic and 1 mosque were damaged," Ms. Bohdan added.
The Russian invasion is destroying churches, mosques, synagogues and religious schools in various regions of Ukraine. The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy has created a website for recording Russia's crimes against the cultural heritage of Ukraine:
https://culturecrimes.mkip.gov.ua.
Ukraine has officially filed a lawsuit against the Russian Federation in the International Court of justice in the Hague for a crime against humanity.