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Lavrov’s letter on Ukrainian Orthodox Church got ‘runaround reply’ from UN chief, says MFA

UN officials assured that they had no information about what was going on, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin said

MOSCOW, April 22. /TASS/. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres gave a runaround reply to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s letter, which focused on the crisis around the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) in Ukraine, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin said on the RT television channel on Friday.

"We urged the international community to focus attention on this lawlessness carried out by the Kiev regime [against the UOC]. Our minister sent a letter to the UN Secretary General, but regrettably, his reply was a formal runaround, and nothing more," he said.

According to Galuzin, UN officials assured that they had no information about what was going on.

"We will do our utmost to ensure the legal rights of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church and will try to get the Kiev authorities to stop its illegal and cynical persecution," he added.

On March 14, Lavrov sent letters to Guterres and 2023 OSCE Chairman-in-Office and Macedonian Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani, in which he called on them to demand that Kiev stop arbitrary actions against the canonical Orthodox Church and prevent the forced eviction of monks from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra monastery. The UN secretary-general’s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said, answering a question from TASS about Lavrov's letter, that Guterres proceeded from the understanding that every country was obliged to guarantee the freedom of religion and the protection of religious sites.

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Ukraine Sergey Lavrov Antonio Guterres

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