On January 21, 2022, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree to impose personal special economic sanctions on individuals responsible for persecuting the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula.
This was reported by the Voice of Crimea.
The list of sanctions includes 18 individuals involved in handing down unjust court rulings on the alienation of property of the Crimean Diocese of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea and Sevastopol, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov told a briefing following an NSDC meeting Dec 30.
Restrictions, applied for a period of five years, include asset freeze, a ban on participation in privatization and lease of state property, as well as a ban on withdrawing capital from Ukraine.
According to the proposal put forward by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, a decision was made to expand the list of individuals and legal entities subject to personal special economic and other restrictive measures (sanctions).
It should be reminded that on March 15, 2021, the Russian occupying authorities in Crimea issued a resolution on demolition of an OCU temple in the city of Yevpatoria. The OCU said they would not demolish the church. Thus, the Russian occupiers in Crimea continue to displace the OCU. Only seven parishes of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and four priests remain in the occupied Crimea as of today.
Recently in Crimea, Metropolitan Klyment (Kushch) consecrated water for the OCU parishioners. He also visited journalist Vladyslav Yesipenko, who is being held captive by the Russian invaders on trumped-up criminal charges.
