THE OCCUPATION AUTHORITIES HAVE SEIZED A UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH LAND IN CRIMEA

The occupiers continue to suppress Ukrainian Christians in Crimea. On August 31 the church of St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Princes Olga and Volodimir of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kievan Patriarchate in Simferopol was blocked by Russian spetsnaz. The temple's prior received a hand injury in the result of the Russian enforcers.

"The first floor is blocked, there are people in black camouflage - special forces, a representative of the property fund is walking inside, a door is broken from the side of the chapel of the Christ the Savior Cathedral, the door has been cracked from the street side." - reports Reverend Clement, the Archbishop of Simferopol and Crimea. 

According to Reverend Clement, the bailiffs took away the cross, church dishes, rare icons, porcelain and Bohemian cutlery, which were donated to the church, as well as carpets. The occupier's administration representatives weren't even conducting an inventory of seized items as it demanded by law.

After the annexation of Crimea by Russia, the Kremlin-controlled authorities have seized part of the lands of the Crimean Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church with the subsequent letting them out for rent or selling.