Russia Refuses to Speak in UN Meeting on Odessa Strikes

In an escalation of Russia's anger at Ukraine and its Western backers, Russia refused to speak at a UN Security Council meeting called to discuss Moscow's recent devastating attacks on the key port of Odesa immediately following its refusal to extend the Black Sea grain deal. The confrontation began at the start of a council session called by Russia on the divided Orthodox Church in Ukraine, the AP reports. Russia's deputy UN ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky, protested that Britain, which holds the council presidency, was allowing only two briefers and Moscow wanted a third—Archbishop Gideon of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

The Ukrainian government has cracked down on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church over its historic ties to the Russian Orthodox Church, whose leader, Patriarch Kirill, supported Russian President Vladimir Putin on the invasion of Ukraine. Polyansky accused the UK of bias, censorship, and obstruction for limiting the number of briefers. Deputy British ambassador James Kariuki responded that because of a tight time schedule to fit in two council meetings, the UK had offered a compromise to allow a third Russian briefer to submit a statement to the council, which he said was "not unreasonable." Polyansky was not satisfied, and Kariuki then put Russia's proposal to have the archbishop speak to a vote. Only China and Brazil backed Russia, with the 12 other council members abstaining.

Polyansky called the council's refusal to allow the archbishop to speak an "egregious" example of double standards on human rights and freedom of religion. As "a sign of protest," he said, Russia wouldn't speak in the council session called by Ukraine to take up the Odesa attacks. The meeting on the Orthodox Church went ahead. The director of the UN Alliance of Civilizations, Nihal Saad, told the council that the division between Ukraine's Orthodox bodies "has existed for decades." But she said it has been exacerbated during the Russian invasion and has "reverberated worldwide as Orthodox churches have struggled with how and whether to take sides." Saad said the "heartbreaking" damage to Odesa's historic church, the Transfiguration Cathedral, caused by a Russian missile strike Sunday was condemned by many, including the UN secretary-general.

(More Russia-Ukraine war stories.)