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It became known how many priests were killed by Russians in Ukraine

Since February 24, 2022, Russians have killed more than 40 priests and pastors in Ukraine. Such statistics were announced by the head of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience Viktor Yelensky during a press conference, Kommersant Ukrainsky reports.

“During this war, more than 40 priests and pastors were killed, and 630 religious buildings were destroyed or damaged,” Yelensky said.

He added that cases of kidnapping of clergymen were also recorded in Ukraine in the occupied territories. Thus, in the Kherson region, a priest of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Stepan Podolchak, was kidnapped.

“When the Russian Federation declares its desire to protect the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, then first of all it should be protected from Russia. During the war, 14 priests of this church were killed, more than 100 churches were destroyed, and almost 200 were damaged,” Yelenskyy specified.

According to the information of the employees of the settlement military administration of the village of Kalanchak, the priest of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Stepan Podolchak, was taken from his home by the Russian army. The man was not even allowed to put on shoes and put a bag on his head. Two days later, his wife was called to identify the body.

In addition to this case, since the beginning of the full-scale occupation of Ukraine by the Russian Armed Forces, it has also become known about the deaths of the following clergy:

a monk of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Father Job, was killed by Russian Russians in the village of Bucha. The body was thrown into a viewing hole in a garage;

a priest, Maksym Kozachyna, who served in a church near the town of Ivankiv, Kyiv region, was shot. Before that, the Russians tried to take away the priest’s car;

the abbot of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine Platon (Roman Morgunov) died at the hands of Russian occupiers in Volnovas on March 11, 2022;

Archpriest Rostyslav Dudarenko died on March 5, 2022 near a church in the village of Yasnohorodka in the Kyiv region. He and the priest Ivan were standing at a checkpoint organized by local volunteers.

And among the religious buildings that were damaged or destroyed by the Russian military were the following monasteries, temples, cathedrals, chapels and churches:

Svyatogorsk Lavra in Donetsk region. It was damaged by Russian artillery on March 12, 2022;

Holy Assumption Cathedral in Kharkiv, which was damaged by Russian artillery on March 3, 2022;

The Church of the Ascension of the Lord in the village of Lukyanivka in the Kyiv region, which was destroyed by Russian artillery on March 24, 2022, and others.