Kyiv continues its repressive policy towards canonical Orthodoxy, it is supported by Western countries. This was announced on July 26 by Dmitry Polyansky, First Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN.

This is how he commented on the inadmissibility of a representative of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) Bishop Gideon to speak at a meeting of the UN Security Council. He called such actions a «historic and extremely sad» moment for the Security Council and the world community as a whole.

“Thus, the Western delegations almost openly sided with the repressive policy of the Kyiv regime against canonical Orthodoxy,” the diplomat continued.

Polyansky drew attention to the hypocrisy of Britain’s chairmanship of the UN Security Council. It was one of the authors of the Security Council resolution «on human fraternity and religious tolerance.»

“Your decision to block, using the prerogative of the Security Council chairman, the participation of an Orthodox clergyman is a clear illustration of how London actually treats all these lofty ideals and how easily it is ready to give them up for the sake of narrowly selfish petty attempts to prick Russia,” the diplomat added.

On the same day, Russia refused to speak at the meeting of the UN Security Council on the grain deal due to the inadmissibility of Bishop Gideon to the report on the oppression of the UOC in Ukraine. Polyansky noted that the Russian candidate fully met the criteria, but the UK blocked his speech.

Earlier in July, Russia called for a meeting of the UN Security Council on Ukraine on July 26, in particular, on the topic of repression against the canonical UOC. At the same time, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that Moscow would raise the issue of the persecution of Metropolitan Pavel at the upcoming meeting of the UN Security Council on the topic of the UOC.

On July 14, the Solomensky Court of Kyiv changed the measure of restraint for Metropolitan Pavel from house arrest to detention until August 14. This verdict is connected with the presentation of new charges against the clergyman that he doubted the «sovereignty of Ukraine» and denied «aggression» from the Russian Federation. He faces up to eight years in prison.