Metropolitan Klyment of Crimea and Simferopol of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) accused the Ukrainian authorities of discriminatory attitudes toward Crimean IDPs, including believers who were forced to leave the peninsula due to Russian occupation.
According to Klyment, despite the fact that the community has lost its homes and churches, it continues to fight for the right to spiritual life in the territory controlled by Ukraine, but instead faces indifference.
The priest said that the government's resolution to transfer the church at 17A Sevastopolska Street in Simferopol to the use of the Crimean Diocesan Administration of the OCU has not yet been implemented. Also, the order to establish a national, cultural and spiritual center of Ukrainians of Crimea in Kyiv, signed by Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, remains unimplemented.
Klyment criticized the inactivity of the Representative Office of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, calling it ineffective, and called for the creation of a full-fledged military administration of Crimea. According to him, similar bodies in Donetsk and Luhansk regions have already shown effectiveness, in particular in providing spiritual support to IDPs.
"If the government has no leverage and only writes letters, it is not serious. We need a structure capable of promptly solving the problems that arise in the Crimean community under the occupation," the Metropolitan emphasized.
He emphasized that Ukrainians from Crimea should not be left on the sidelines of state policy.
"The President's Representative Office in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea takes a completely different position, along with the ministers, like the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Reorganization, or whatever it is called now. We - the Ukrainian community, Ukrainians, believers - do not exist, unfortunately, for the Ukrainian authorities. This is the problem," said Klyment.
