03 November 2020 Metropolitan of Simferopol and Kyiv Klyment (Klyment Crimea) has got a pile of documents from the so called “Directorate of Federal Judicial Police Service for the Republic of Crimea” with the demand to remove the church of Orthodox Church of Ukraine “Neopalyma Kupyna” in Yevpatoria until 3 November 2020 and pay a fine of 50 000 rubles.

 “The Mission of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea condemns the repeated violations by the occupying State of the Russian Federation against the Crimean diocese of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and its believers. The decision of the so-called court and further demands to dismantle the temple “Neopalyma Cupina” in Yevpatoria are aimed at displacing the Ukrainian Church from the temporarily occupied Crimean Peninsula. Russia wants Crimea to be free of the Ukrainian Church, an important unification center of Ukraine. The Mission will take all possible means and actions to protect the Ukrainian Church: information on systematic violations of the right to religious freedom and infringements of the property of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in the Crimea discussed with the diplomatic corps and international organizations; Facts of violations collected and submitted for inclusion in the annual United Nations General Assembly resolution on Crimea”, the Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the AR of Crimea Anton Korynevych pointed out.

Let us recall that on July 23, 2020, the Metropolitan of the Crimean diocese of the PCU Clement, the Russian occupiers, handed the resolution on the demolition of the temple in Evpatoria. The so-called «Yevpatoria City Court» decided in November 2019 to demolish the wooden temple of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the construction of which started even before the occupation of the peninsula by Russia:

 “to obligate in solidarity order the respondents to the Community in the name of the Assumption of the image of Holy Mother «Neopalyma Kupyna»and the Office of the Crimean Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to liberate the municipal plot of land totaling 30,25 sq. m, by dismantling the building erected on it , the decision of the Occupying “Court” stated.