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(LifeSiteNews) — The Major Archbishop of Kiev has said that Russia banned the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and destroyed multiple parish churches in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine.
During the St. Michael’s Annual Reception in Berlin, Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, who is the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), addressed the issue of the Russian military targeting the UGCC in the course of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
“Our church has already been banned in the occupied parts of Ukraine,” Sviatoslav said in his address in front of over 500 guests, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholtz and the head of the German Bishops Conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing.
“Almost all our parishes have been destroyed, churches and monasteries have been seized and their property confiscated,” he stated, adding that “Russia intends to further depopulate our country through a large-scale, yes, total occupation and thus send at least 10 million more people to the EU. 630 churches and religious institutions have been destroyed or damaged.”
“If Putin succeeds in occupying the whole of Ukraine, all Ukrainian churches will be wiped out,” the archbishop warned.
In December 2023, the UGCC communications office reported that Russian authorities banned the church in the occupied Zaporizhzhia region. The Russians reportedly also banned the Knights of Columbus and the Catholic Caritas organization.
While the Russians have banned the UGCC and other Ukraine-affiliated organizations and destroyed many religious buildings, including Orthodox and Catholic churches, the Ukrainian government has engaged in similar crackdowns during the war.
In March 2023, the United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) criticized the Ukrainian government for raiding the properties of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) and arresting some of its clergy due to the church’s former official ties to the Patriarchate of Moscow.
Ukraine’s Parliament recently approved a ban on activities of religious groups that support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or are tied to the Russian Orthodox Church. The ban is seen as targeting the UOC, which the Ukrainian regime still considers an ally of the Russian Orthodox Church, despite the UOC declaring its independence from the Patriarchate of Moscow in 2022.
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