Russians have killed 50 priests in Ukraine and destroyed 700 churches.

President Vladimir Zelensky reported this in an interview with CBN.

According to him, priests were killed for refusing to serve the Russian church and Patriarch Kirill.

The president also emphasized that Russian troops are destroying all schools and churches in the occupied territories. So far, there are reports of 700 churches being destroyed by Russians.

“Russians treat Ukrainian churches much like they do schools… Just to ensure that no trace remains. As a result, many different priests have been captured or killed. And they were killed in various ways. There is ample evidence of how they tortured them,” Zelensky stated.

It is noteworthy that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has adopted a resolution titled “Countering the Erasure of Cultural Identity During War and Peace.” The document asserts that the erasure of Ukrainian cultural identity is a tool of Russia's war against Ukraine and a component of its genocide policy.

According to data from the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, from February 24, 2022, to October 25, 2024, Russia has destroyed or damaged 2,109 cultural heritage sites. The greatest losses and damages to cultural infrastructure have occurred in the Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Luhansk regions.