The confrontation began at the start of a council session called by Russia on the divided Orthodox Church in Ukraine. Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky ,protested that Britain, which holds the council presidency, was allowing only two briefers and Moscow wanted a third -- Archbishop Gideon of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Polyansky was not satisfied, and Kariuki then put Russia's proposal to have the archbishop speak to a vote. Russia got support only from China and Brazil, with the 12 other council members abstaining. The meeting on the Orthodox Church then went ahead. The director of the U.N. Alliance of Civilizations, Nihal Saad, told the council that the division between Ukraine's Orthodox bodies "has existed for decades." But she said it has been exacerbated since the February 2022 Russian invasion and has "reverberated worldwide as Orthodox churches have struggled with how and whether to take sides.
In her briefing, Saad cited restrictions to freedom of religion by both Russia and Ukraine since the invasion, saying "the politicization of religion in the war in Ukraine fuels intercommunal tensions, stokes fear and triggers violence." She accused Russia of "weaponizing grain" and cynically using Russian-produced grain as leverage to win the support of other countries.
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