"This is not an accident, but a systemic crime": Zelensky’s Office condemns seizure of the OCU Cathedral in Simferopol by occupiers

The agency made this announcement on its Facebook page.

The Representation denounced the occupation of the Cathedral and demanded an immediate end to the systemic violation of the right to worship by the OCU parishioners. The statement drew the attention of law enforcement agencies and the Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, and the city of Sevastopol.

According to the agency, on May 11, the occupiers and "bailiffs" forcibly evicted the Cathedral of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Volodymyr and Princess Olga. The occupiers surrounded the area, refused entry to the Cathedral, and failed to provide any documents for their occupation. They drove out all the parishioners, broke locks and doors, and seized property.

The President's Office emphasized that this is not an isolated incident but a systematic crime committed by the occupation administrations since 2014 to prevent the functioning of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine on the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea.

In 2017, the authorities seized part of the Cathedral building and transferred it to the ownership of the occupation administration. In 2020, the occupation courts supposedly fully confiscated the Cathedral building from the occupants.

The President's Office called on the international community to react to the oppression of the rights of OCU believers and to continue political and diplomatic pressure on the Russian Federation and the occupation administrations of the peninsula controlled by it. The only way to stop the occupiers' antics is to liberate Crimea, the agency said.

As RISU reported, on May 11, the occupiers seized the premises of the Cathedral and blocked the entrance to it.