Cathedral of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in Simferopol raided. PHOTO

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Марина ПищулинаQHA media
24 July 2019, 17:46
Марина ПищулинаQHA media
24 July 2019, 17:46

Unknown people looted and broke the church property of the Cathedral of Saints Vladimir and Olga of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in the illegally annexed Simferopol.

 The Archbishop of the Crimean Diocese of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine Klement told informed the Center for Investigative Journalism about the incident.

He said that, according to the decision of the "court" of 2017, 110 square meters of the first floor of the cathedral were seized. It was sealed and locked up.

Icons, furniture, carpets, etc. were subjected to vandalism.

All church items are stolen, - the Archbishop concluded.

The raid occurred at a time when Klement was at a conference on religious freedom in the United States.

The Archbishop said that in this way Russia shows the whole world what the world community and religious freedom means for it. He accused Anna Anyukhina, the “Minister of Property and Land Relations” of the occupied Crimea, of the incident.

Being in the United States at a conference on religious freedom, Klement declared that everything Ukrainian was being destroyed in Crimea, and out of 49 parishes of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, only seven remained.

On June 28, the “Arbitration Court” of Crimea ruled to transfer the building of the Cathedral of Vladimir and Olga in Simferopol from the Crimean Diocese of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine to the “Ministry of Property and Land Relations” of Crimea.