Russian court orders demolition of Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kyiv Patriarchate) in Moscow Oblast

The Moscow Regional Court has ruled that the Holy Trinity Church of the Bohorodsk Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Kyiv Patriarchate in the city of Noginsk (a Moscow suburb) must be demolished, announced hieromonk Svyatoslav (Merkuriy) Skorokhod on his FB page:

The lawsuit against the UOC-KP was filed by the Noginsk City Administration, but hieromonk Svyatoslav Skorokhod believes it was probably instigated by the Moscow Patriarchate.

The court ruled that the Ukrainian Church of the Holy Trinity was to be demolished in four months at the expense of the Ukrainian diocese.

Hieromonk Svyatoslav Skorokhod also remarked that

before the hearing, lawyer Tatiana Goryunova, who was defending the interests of the UOC-KP, was brutally attacked. Unidentified persons in a passing vehicle opened fire on Ms Goryunova.

Metropolitan Adrian Starina noted:

“Unfortunately, anything related to Ukraine is being cleaned out and systematically destroyed. Today we saw the decision regarding demolition of our church; yesterday it was the forced closure of the Ukrainian library and banning of a single centralized Ukrainian organization – The Ukrainian Congress of Russia.”

A similar trend has been observed in the occupied territories, namely in Crimea and Donbas. Moslems are persistently interrogated, arrested and imprisoned, and several mosques and madrasas (educational institutions) have been closed down. The UOC-KP is systematically persecuted in Crimea, and some KP churches have been illegally seized in the occupied territories of Donbas.

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