Pro-Russian Archbishop Gideon not allowed to speak at UN Security Council meeting

This is reported by Ukrinform.

According to the publication, Russia sought to allow Archbishop Gideon to speak online. 

However, the United Kingdom, which currently holds the presidency of the Security Council, decided to allow two of the three speakers proposed by Russia.

Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation Dmitry Polyansky demanded that the issue be put to the members of the Security Council as a procedural one. Three Security Council members voted in favour, and 12 abstained. (The Council is composed of 15 Members: five permanent and ten non-permanent members elected for two-year terms by the General Assembly – ed.).

As a result, Gideon, who collaborated with the occupation authorities during Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and fled to Russia, was not allowed to speak.

• On Wednesday, July 26, the UN Security Council is holding two meetings on the situation in Ukraine. The first is at the request of Russia, which accuses Ukraine of allegedly "persecuting Russian Orthodoxy".

• The second meeting will be devoted to Russia's attack on the historic centre of Odesa, which, among other things, destroyed the city’s largest Orthodox Transfiguration Cathedral.