Priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Kyiv Patriarchate, are eager to preach at mosques: a shelter offered to them by the Crimean Tatars. This statement by the Kyiv Patriarchate archbishop Evtratiy Zorya was quoted by the “5 channel”.

According to him, two priests were forced to leave Crimea, another eleven headed by the archbishop Clementius continue the church service. All the Kyiv Patriarchate, however, were forced to evacuate their families from Crimea.

Orthodox Christians will accept the Crimean Tatars’ offer only if they won’t feel safe in their Crimean churches any longer, or if the Kyiv Patriarchate priests and parishioners will be driven away from their churches.

“If it will no longer be safe for us, our priests and parishioners pray at our churches, people, Muslims are eager to provide their mosques for this purpose. They also assure that they’ll help us defend our rights and give us a possibility to preach and pray in their religious buildings,” — Mr. Zorya said.

It was reported earlier that Crimean eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Moscow Patriarchate, denied information on inventory survey of the Kyiv Patriarchate property.