This was announced by the lawyer of the Regional Center for Human Rights Mykola Kikkas during the presentation of the results of the study of the negative influence of the occupying state on the Ukrainian national identity and cultural heritage of Ukraine in Crimea.

According to him, this is the result of Russia's policy on the occupied peninsula. Among the methods of ousting the PCU from the Crimea, the lawyer called the ban on having a passport other than the Russian one for church ministers, persecution of the church and seizure of church property.

Read also: In Crimea, there is a whole range of human rights violations - the UN representative

In addition, the occupiers are preventing the re-registration of churches and discrediting priests and believers in their occupation media.

"In 2014, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine had 45 parishes on the Crimean peninsula, 26 churches, and 14 clergy in the Crimean diocese. Today, according to various estimates, there are only seven parishes, eight church premises and only four clergy. Moreover, we know the case when a priest serves on a shift basis, because he cannot stay in the Crimea, because he does not have an occupation passport", - Mykola Kikkas said.

Experts from the Regional Center for Human Rights also spoke about how Russia is negatively affecting Ukraine's identity in the occupied Crimea. In particular, the occupiers are creating an information vacuum, removing all Ukrainian names from institutions and establishments, destroying historical and architectural monuments that are at least somewhat reminiscent of Ukraine. And activists are significantly intimidated.

"These are illustrative examples of massacres, persecution, torture, arrests, intimidation of pro-Ukrainian activists, those people who express loyalty to Ukraine in any way, sticker of the Right Sector or the flag of Ukraine on the frame of a bicycle (...) This is a complete cleansing of everything connected with Ukraine, even if it was a monument to the dumpling, it will also be destroyed because it is a connection with Ukraine. And it doesn't matter that there is the same thing in Russia", - Daryna Pidhorna, a lawyer with the Regional Center for Human Rights said.

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