Ukraine condemned destruction of Holy Cross Exaltation Church in temporarily occupied Yevpatoriia

The Mission of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea strongly condemned the Russian occupation administration’s destruction of the Holy Cross Exaltation Church in Yevpatoriia – the last Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) in Crimea.

The struggle of the parish “Neopalyma Kupyna” named after the Holy Image of the Mother of God in Yevpatoriia and the Administration of the Crimean Diocese of the OCU for the church has been going on since the beginning of the occupation of the peninsula. Earlier, it became known that the occupiers applied to the occupation “court” for the so-called “permission to demolish the church.”

Previously, ZMINA reported the occupiers began dismantling the church in July – they removed the dome and dismantled the upper part of the church.

The Mission called on the international and global religious communities to condemn Russia’s actions in Ukrainian Crimea.

The Mission called on the international and global religious communities to condemn Russia’s actions in Ukrainian Crimea.

The Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea has initiated criminal proceedings under Art. 438, Part 1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (“Violation of the laws and customs of war”). Those involved in destroying the last Ukrainian church on the peninsula face up to 12 years in prison.

Since 2014, Russia has been exercising administrative, judicial, and forceful pressure on the Crimean Diocese of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine to stop its activities and force it out of the temporarily occupied Crimea.

The President’s Mission in Crimea noted that this pressure drastically reduced the number of parishes and priests. Before the occupation, Crimea had 49 religious communities (parishes, missions, brotherhoods, monasteries), but by the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, only seven remained.

The Mission emphasised that the destruction of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in Crimea, the forced displacement of priests outside the peninsula, and the consistent persecution of Ukrainian citizens on the territory of the occupied peninsula on religious and ethnic grounds violate international law and are a systematic activity to destroy Ukrainian identity on the occupied peninsula.

To provide context, in June 2024, in the case of Ukraine v. Russia (concerning Crimea), the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) identified numerous human rights violations, including the right to freedom of religion, by the Russian occupiers against the residents of occupied Crimea, enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights.