Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's permanent envoy for the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Anton Korinevych has said the refusal by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation to reconsider the judgment to evict the congregation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) from the Cathedral of St Vladimir and Olga in Simferopol is the embodiment of the policy of the occupying state to oust the OCU from Crimea.
"The Russian Federation has once again made efforts to destroy Ukrainian cultural centers in Crimea, persecuting the Ukrainian congregation," according to a statement by the Office of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea posted on Facebook.
"The representative office condemns the latest violations by the occupying state, the Russian Federation, against the Crimean diocese of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and its worshipers. The court's ruling aimed at the eviction of the diocese from the Cathedral of St Vladimir and Olga in Simferopol embodies the policy of the occupying state to oust the Ukrainian Church from the temporarily occupied Crimean peninsula. Russia doesn't want in Crimea any Ukrainian church, an important center of unity for Ukrainians," Korinevych said in a statement.
He assured the representative office would take all possible measures to protect the Ukrainian church.
As UNIAN reported earlier, on August 4, 2020, the Supreme Court refused to reconsider the judgment to evict the congregation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine from the Cathedral of St Vladimir and Olga in Simferopol, which Russia has been trying to take over since its invasion and annexation in 2014.
Archbishop Klyment has long warned of the dangers and implication of Russia allowing to destroy the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Crimea.
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According to lawyers, the Supreme Court's move essentially means the total dissolution of the Ukrainian Orthodox community in Crimea.
