Media: Ukrainian church seized in occupied Crimea.

Russia has seized a church in occupied Crimea belonging to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, media outlet Krym Realii reported [1] on May 11. Andrii Shchekun, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Krymska Svetlytsia, said that Russia had "broken down the doors of the church" and stolen property from the church premises. The seizure of the church was managed by Yevgen Novikov, a bailiff in Moscow, according to Shchekun.

Russian authorities have yet to comment on the situation. The European Court of Human Rights previously appealed to Russian authorities regarding the persecution of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in Crimea, to which Russian authorities responded there was no religious persecution, Krym Realii wrote. Russia has occupied Crimea since it annexed[2] the peninsula in 2014 in the wake of the Euromaidan Revolution[3] that ousted then-pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych.

Since the start of the full-scale war, Russia has been using Crimea to launch missiles against Ukraine and as a logistic route to transfer equipment to the southern battlefield.

Russia's annexation of Crimea Russia invaded Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in February 2014 amid the deadliest days of the EuroMaidan Revolution that eventually ousted pro-Russian ex-President Viktor Yanukovych. While Yanukovych's pro-Russian regime was murdering protesters in downtown Kyiv, around 30,000 Russian troops crossed i...