Global Courant
ISTANBUL
Russia said on Sunday that the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is taking a “biased approach” on Ukraine.
“Representatives of the bureaucracy of this organization refuse to notice the long-standing lawlessness in Ukraine,” Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, told Telegram.
Zakharova said UNESCO “kept silent” in December when it demolished the monument to Catherine the Great, believed to be the founder of the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa.
He added that the historic center of the city, which UNESCO soon decided to “culturally preserve”, could no longer be called “historic”.
Zakharova also commented on a statement posted on Twitter by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba earlier in the day, saying Kiev “has no right to challenge legality” after what it has done to dozens of Orthodox churches, notably the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.
“By the way, the damage to the Transfiguration Cathedral is also on the conscience of the Kiev regime and inept operators of air defense systems deliberately deployed in settlements by the Ukrainian army, and the Ministry of Defense has already confirmed this.”
Earlier on Sunday, a Russian missile strike in Odessa damaged civilian infrastructure and residences, including the city’s largest Orthodox church building, the historic Transfiguration Cathedral.
“The rain of Russian missiles is killing people and destroying iconic sites in UNESCO-protected Odessa,” Kuleba wrote on Twitter after the attack.
“Russia is systematically destroying the Orthodox Church and its buildings in Ukraine. The latest is today’s strike at Odessa’s Transfiguration Cathedral. “We will raise the issue at the next UNSC (United Nations Security Council) meeting on Ukraine to make it clear: Russia is the only threat to Ukraine’s Orthodoxy,” Kuleba later said in a tweet.
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