UNITED NATIONS, July 26. /TASS/. Western countries have openly joined the Kiev regime’s repressive policy against Orthodoxy, Russia’s First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyansky said.

"Today is a historic and extremely sad moment both for the UN Security Council and the global community in general - the participation of a UOC representative in our session has been blocked. Thus, Western delegations practically openly sided with the Kiev regime’s repressive policy against canonical Orthodoxy," he said, commenting on Bishop Gedeon, a representative of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), not being allowed to speak at a Security Council session.

The diplomat also urged to note "the hypocrisy of the UK’s chairmanship [of the UN Security Council] which is one of the authors of the Security Council resolution on human fraternity and religious tolerance." "Your decision to block the participation of an Orthodox priest using the exclusive right of a chairman of the Security Council is a vivid illustration of how London actually treats all of these lofty ideals and how easily it can relinquish them for the sake of petty venal attempts to spite Russia," Polyansky concluded.