On October 4, the occupiers sealed the Church of the Resurrection of Christ of the Crimean Diocese of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) in the village of Biyuk-Onlar (Oktyabrske), Kurman district in the occupied peninsula.
This was reported by the rector of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, Father Yaroslav, in a commentary for the Voice of Crimea.
“Another destruction of the temple of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine has taken place, which is being carried out by the occupation authorities with the help of local collaborators who betrayed Ukraine and are currying favor with their new “masters”. The destruction of the Ukrainian church means the destruction of the Ukrainian language, culture, and Ukrainian identity of the significant population of the peninsula, who had the church as the only center of Ukrainians in Crimea,” – Father Yaroslav emphasized.
The parishioners of the church were stunned that the occupiers had taken away their shrine, where they had been praying since 2002, when they decided to move from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate (now the OCU).
“We have to look at the destruction of the OCU in Crimea much more broadly than the destruction of one religious structure. We are witnessing that the Ukrainian community of Crimea, their national public associations and political structures, as well as the clergy of the Crimean Diocese of the OCU did not cooperate with the occupation regime, did not become collaborators for the sake of benefits. This is not only revenge for disobedience on the part of the occupation authorities, but also a purposeful policy of the Russians for centuries aimed at destroying the entire Ukrainian people – an actual ethnocide. We have to talk about it and record the facts of Russian crimes, because the time of reckoning will definitely come,” – said Andriy Shchekun, the authorized representative of the Crimean Diocese of the OCU.