Since the start of the war, Russia has destroyed 78 churches in Donetsk region, most of them of the Moscow Patriarchate

The aggressor country Russia continues to pursue scorched earth tactics in its war against Ukraine. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the occupiers have completely or partially destroyed 78 churches in the Donetsk region.

Interestingly, most of them, namely 46, were of the Moscow Patriarchate. The head of the Donetsk regional military administration Pavlo Kyrylenko told Ukrinform about this in an interview.

He gave the assignment to keep such a count after the heavy fighting for Sviatogorsk began. Russian occupation troops then shelled the Sviatogorsk Lavra, where hundreds of civilians were hiding. As a result of these attacks, the temple was damaged and the monks were killed.

"It embarrassed me as a person at the time that even many clerics of the Lavra could not call things by their proper names - who and from where was firing, but started making things up. Because when the first missile flew into the Sviatogorsk bridge, it was clear how it flew and from where. And the abbot of the Lavra temple could not even address in his comments to those who did it - the Russian Federation, the military, and when the wooden temple on the rise to the highest hermitage, which is on the way to the monument to Artem, I said to count all religious, places of worship," - said the head of the regional military administration.

According to Kyrylenko, he knows "many nuances" of how the clerics of Sviatogorsk Lavra behaved during the Russian shelling. "I will definitely still talk about this after our victory," he added.

The head of the regional administration stressed that the Moscow Patriarchate and its priests are in trouble. In particular, he recalled the confirmed facts of cooperation of these priests with the special services of the Russian Federation.

"We will facilitate the deployment of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine on the territory of the region, allocate land plots, restore opportunities to hold services," Kyrylenko said.

He also said that Russian occupiers in Donetsk region damaged or destroyed 95,701 residential buildings. These are mainly residential buildings, of which 6009 are apartment buildings and 89692 are private. These numbers increase every day due to constant shelling by the invaders.

Other facilities also suffered: 746 educational institutions were destroyed or damaged in the region, of which 78 schools and vocational schools were completely destroyed. 306 kindergartens and nurseries were also destroyed.

"We also keep statistics on medical institutions of all forms of ownership. The total number of destroyed or damaged facilities reaches 216 as of June 1 this year," added the head of the regional military administration.

As reported by OBOZREVATEL, Russian Kafirs completely destroyed a church building in Mariinka, Donetsk region. Curiously, the cathedral belonged to the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate.

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