Ministry of Culture "transfers" former cathedral in Simferopol to OCU

on March 18, 2026, an agreement was officially signed on the transfer of the Cathedral of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Volodymyr and Princess Olha in Simferopol to the Crimean Diocese of the OCU for free use. According to the terms of the agreement concluded with the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, the church is transferred to the diocese for a period of 49 years — until 2075. The transfer took place despite the fact that the church was no longer used as a religious building several years ago, due to the refusal of representatives of the Crimean Diocese of the OCU to register under Russian law, which has been in force on the peninsula uncontrolled by Ukraine since 2014.

According to the Golos Kryma publication, citing the head of the Crimean Diocese of the OCU, Klyment Kushch, this document was «the logical conclusion of the implementation of the resolutions of the Verkhovna Rada and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on the transfer of the church to state ownership.» Kushch noted that the signing of the agreement actually summarizes the thirty-year struggle of the Ukrainian community of Crimea for the right to worship in their own cathedral, which was transferred to the diocese in 1995.

Kushch emphasized that this step is a powerful signal of the state’s consistent protection of the rights of its citizens, including Crimeans who were forced to leave the peninsula. «This is not just a legal procedure. This is an act of state support for Ukrainians in Crimea. We are fixing the right to this cathedral for decades to come and demonstrating it to the world: Crimea is Ukraine,» summarized the head of the diocese.

It is worth noting that Klyment Kushch, who imitates the «active struggle» against the Russian occupation of Crimea, received a Russian passport in the first months after the seizure of the peninsula. Later, as we have already reported, the head of the Crimean diocese of the OCU justified that he needed a Russian passport in order to keep his personal and church property in Crimea.