The historical cathedral was occupied last week in violation of international law.
by Massimo Introvigne
Melitopol is a city in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast in Southern Ukraine that has been under Russian occupation since March 2022. The historical Cathedral of Saint Alexander Nevsky is the main religious building in Melitopol and one of the two cathedrals for the Zaporizhzhia Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church loyal to the Moscow Patriarchate.
It was originally an Armenian Church. It was closed by the Soviets and adapted for secular use. In 1941, it was reopened as the Orthodox church of Saint Alexander Nevsky, borrowing the name from the old cathedral destroyed during Stalin’s anti-religious crackdown of the 1930s.
On June 1, the Ukrainian Religious Information Service reported that the historic cathedral had been occupied by the Russian Army, which has stationed there soldiers and weapons.
Regardless of any permission the Russian Army might have obtained from local clergy, this use of a religious building is prohibited by international law. Article 54 of Protocol I to the Geneva Convention states that “it is prohibited: (a) to commit any acts of hostility directed against the historic monuments, works of art or places of worship which constitute the cultural or spiritual heritage of peoples; (b) to use such objects in support of the military effort; (c) to make such objects the object of reprisals.”
It is true that on October 16, 2019, the Putin government unilaterally walked out of Protocol I, which includes provisions on the wartime protection of civilians Russia was accused of having breached in Syria and elsewhere.
Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955 in Rome) is an Italian sociologist of religions. He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements. Introvigne is the author of some 70 books and more than 100 articles in the field of sociology of religion. He was the main author of the Enciclopedia delle religioni in Italia (Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy). He is a member of the editorial board for the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion and of the executive board of University of California Press’ Nova Religio. From January 5 to December 31, 2011, he has served as the “Representative on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with a special focus on discrimination against Christians and members of other religions” of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). From 2012 to 2015 he served as chairperson of the Observatory of Religious Liberty, instituted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to monitor problems of religious liberty on a worldwide scale.
