You're reading: Kyiv alarmed by violation of Kyiv Patriarchate parishioners rights in Crimea

The Ukrainian Culture Ministry has expressed concern by the situation around institutions of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate in the occupied Crimea and is asking international organizations for legal evaluation of this matter.

“Parishioners of the Ukrainian church are suffering for their convictions because they openly stated their civil position and their opinion about the illegal annexation of the part of Ukraine by the Russian Federation,” the Culture Ministry said in a statement posted on the Culture Ministry’s website on Nov. 10.

“In this connection we call on the international community and public institutions to pay attention to systemic violations of rights of believers, which are happening against the Ukrainian orthodox community in the annexed Crimea, and make a relevant international legal evaluation of this situation and to prevent further violation of religious rights of the parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchy by the occupational authorities of the peninsula,” the ministry said.

The ministry said they monitor the religious situation in the occupied Crimea and Donbas and constantly receive complaints from believers of Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate who live in Crimea about violation of their rights.

“The latest instance of this shameful trend was registered in Simferopol on November 8, 2016. Six employees of the Crimean Property Fund stormed into the cathedral… in order to seal the church and prevent the activities of the Ukrainian religious community,” the Culture Ministry said.