Follow live the latest news about the war in Ukraine
MADRID, Jan. 18 (.) –
Ukraine has accused Moscow on Tuesday of trying to cover up its alleged war crimes before the United Nations Security Council, after the Russian representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzia, assured that the Ukrainian government was preparing initiatives to “eliminate by complete” to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
The Ukrainian representative to the United Nations, Sergei Kislitsia, has stated that it is “regrettable” that his Russian counterpart, Vasili Nebenzia, “is capable of abusing his permanent seat to make the Council listen to his disinformation narratives.”
“Moscow is still trying to divert the Council’s attention from the real security threats stemming from its aggression,” he said.
Kislitsia has maintained that freedom of religion is a human right, as it is included in various documents of international organizations.
However, he has denounced that during the war, which lasted a total of eleven months, Russian troops have destroyed more than 270 churches and sacred buildings.
“Wherever Russia comes, religious freedom ends,” he stressed, adding that the country tortures Orthodox Christians, imprisons Muslims, forces Protestants to flee and persecutes Jehovah’s Witnesses.
However, the Ukrainian representative has criticized that the Security Council “must be used to address real threats to peace and international security, threats that claim the lives of innocent people throughout Ukraine.”
Earlier, Nebenzia criticized that the Administration of Volodimir Zelensky is “preparing a series of new initiatives, the aim of which is to discriminate against the communities and believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, strip it of its historical and legal name, and even eliminate it completely”.
In this regard, he explained that Ukraine is “on the verge of a large-scale interfaith conflict that the history of modern Europe has not yet seen.” Nebenzia specified that kyiv, with Western support, has established a plan to “undermine” the Church.
