The dome has already been removed: the occupiers in Yevpatoria have begun dismantling the last Ukrainian church in Crimea

The dome has already been removed: the occupiers in Yevpatoria have begun dismantling the last Ukrainian church in Crimea Irina Martsiyash

In Crimea, the occupiers are dismantling the OCU temple/Collage 24 Channel (Photo “Voice of Crimea”)

In Evpatoria, in Crimea, the occupation authorities began dismantling the Holy Cross Church of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

The information agency “Voice of Crimea” reported that dismantling began on Sunday, July 21.

The occupiers began dismantling the Ukrainian temple in Yevpatoria

As of July 21, the Russian invaders removed the dome from the temple and dismantled the upper part of the building.

“Voice of Crimea” notes that the parish in honor of the Burning Bush icon of the Mother of God began the fight for the temple from the beginning of the occupation of the peninsula.

According to the agency, since 2019 the parish pressured him to comply with the demands of the occupation court and demolish the small wooden temple on his own.

The Crimean prosecutor's office opened a criminal case for the demolition of the last Ukrainian churches on the peninsula

The prosecutor's office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol opened a criminal case for violation of the laws and customs of war (part 1 of article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

Yesterday, July 21, representatives of the occupation authorities began dismantling the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross of the OCU in Yevpatoria. Earlier, in 2019, the occupation Yevpatoria City Court made an illegal decision to demolish this temple. of the population during the 1949 War, which prohibits the destruction of property not justified by military necessity, and Article 56 of the 1907 Hague Regulations on the Laws and Customs of War, which provides for the protection of religious institutions from seizure, destruction or willful damage.

They added that in February 2024, the autonomy’s prosecutor’s office and the public organization Global Rights Compliance submitted information about the crimes of the Russian occupation authorities against religious groups in Crimea to the International Criminal Court. This submission contains evidence of systemic persecution and pressure on the religious communities of the peninsula, in particular the destruction of churches of the Crimean Diocese of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.