On July 20, 2022, a church in one of the villages of the Esman Territorial Community (Sumy diocese of the UOC) was hit by shelling. This was reported by the head of the Sumy Regional Military Administration Dmitry Zhivitsky in Telegram.

“Today at noon, the Russians opened fire on one of the villages of the Esman community from cannon artillery… The church was also damaged,” he wrote.

According to him, there were about 14 hits, presumably self-propelled guns.

As reported, in the Donetsk diocese, the UOC showed the results of shelling for Orthodox churches.