No church of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine will remain in Simferopol, in the occupied Crimea. Instead of the church, the occupiers started building on the plot housing units for Russian FSB employees. A cathedral may further be built nearby, but the one of the Russsian Orthodox Church, according to Fakty.

The representative of the organization Crimean House Andriy Shchekun talked about the future of the land plot seized from the Ukrainian Church. In 2013, the UOC-Kyiv Patriarchate received a site in Simferopol for the construction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. There was even a draft of the future cathedral. But after the annexation of Crimea, the occupiers immediately launched construction of a residential complex for the FSB officers of the Russian Federation there.

The transfer of the land plot in favor of the FSB was made by the occupiers as a “free-willed refusal”. Now on-site surveyors started working there, the preparations for the construction of the church began, but already for Moscow churchmen.

Earlier in Crimea, the occupiers decided to take away from the Orthodox Church of Ukraine the only church in Simferopol. As an excuse, it was alleged that two rent payments were not made. Now, the occupiers want to terminate the lease agreement on the building, which is a church of the OCU.

Not only the Ukrainian Church is subject to persecutuons in Crimea, but also the Ukrainian language. The Ukrainian was completely ostracized in the Crimean schools.