UNITED NATIONS, December 31. /TASS/. Russia's first deputy envoy to the UN Dmitry Polyansky has said the Czech Republic’s refusal to participate in the UN Security Council meeting about the recent Ukrainian shelling of Belgorod amounted to cowardice.

"Your cowardice and short-sightedness is noted. We assume that the Czech Republic will no longer participate in the UN Security Council meeting on the issue of Ukraine," he said on X (formerly Twitter).

Polyansky wrote the post in Czech and was responding to Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky who said Prague would not allow its representatives to be summoned by Russia. Lipavsky made his statement after Russia demanded that the Czech envoy to the UN attend the Security Council meeting and explain why ammunition that his country supplies to Ukraine is used to kill civilians.

The city of Belgorod and the surrounding region have recently come under shelling. The latest strike was carried out with a Czech-made MLRS that fired two rockets with cluster munitions into downtown Belgorod. At least 21 people were killed and 110 were injured. Damage was done exclusively to civilian facilities.