UNITED NATIONS, May 5. /TASS/. Russia demands that North Macedonia, who is currently presiding over the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), take real action to protect religious freedoms in Ukraine, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said at a UN Security Council meeting on Thursday.

"We demand that the current OSCE presidency take real action to protect religious freedoms in Ukraine in compliance with OSCE principles and commitments," he pointed out.

According to Nebenzya, the OSCE chairman and secretariat "are disgracefully silent about the Kiev regime’s politically motivated persecution of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church the way they were disgracefully silent about the atrocities committed by the ‘Maidan’ government and the crimes of Ukrainian nationalists, including the burning of people alive in Odessa’s Trade Union House nine years ago," the Russian envoy noted.

"Today, the same tragedy is happening again as there are no fundamental assessments of the pressure that the church is facing from government bodies and Ukrainian intelligence agencies, as well as of their interference in the life of religious communities and affairs related to freedom of religion, even though Ukraine is clearly violating its international legal obligations, including the OSCE ones," Nebenzya noted.