Russia has seized a church in occupied Crimea belonging to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, media outlet Krym Realii reported 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 the peninsula in 2014 in the wake of the Euromaidan Revolution 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.
Lucy Minicozzi-Wheeland
