Expert: 530 religious buildings damaged in Ukraine during full-scale war
In Ukraine, about 530 religious buildings were damaged as a result of Russian shelling.
This was reported by the director of the Kharkiv Human Rights Group, Yevhen Zakharov, during a press conference at the Ukraine Media Center, Ukrinform reports.
"To date, we have counted approximately 530 religious buildings that have come under fire. We are monitoring this as part of our project. And several of them have come under fire several times," Zakharov said.
He noted that the largest number of damaged buildings is in the regions where hostilities are taking place.
According to him, in Donetsk region - over 100, in Kyiv region - over 80, in Luhansk and Kharkiv regions - over 60, in Kherson region - over 55, in Zaporizhzhya region - over 30.
In addition, dozens of religious buildings were damaged in Sumy, Chernihiv, Mykolaiv and Dnipro regions, the expert added.
"About half of all recorded cases of damage to religious buildings are churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. That is, we can say that protecting, so to speak, religious values, traditional values of Orthodoxy, the Russians are hitting Orthodox churches first of all," Zakharov said.
He noted that there have also been cases of shelling of Jewish, Muslim, and Hindu religious buildings.
As reported, approximately 863 cultural heritage sites have been destroyed or damaged as a result of Russian aggression in Ukraine.