Remarks to the Press by Chargé d'Affaires of the Russian Federation Dmitry Polyanskiy after UNSC briefing on persecution of Ukrainian Orthodox Church
Dmitry Polyanskiy: I wanted to draw your attention to a very scandalous and shameful situation that we had right now. You all heard my statements. Despite all the declared values and principles by the British Presidency, namely that it would encourage participation of civil society activists, the Presidency denied participation of our briefer who had direct relation to the topic of the meeting and who could bring absolutely valuable information to the attention of members of the Security Council. I tried to compensate this moment in my statement. I quoted some part, a very disturbing part from his statement, which I thought was necessary for everyone to listen to. But we are really very much shocked by the behavior of the British Presidency. That's why we decided to protest and not speak at the next meeting, which is starting right now. That's what I wanted to say.
Q: Ambassador, you called a meeting about the Orthodox Church in Ukraine and yet Russia bombed the Transfiguration Cathedral in Odessa, which is the main Orthodox Church in Odessa and part of a UNESCO-listed heritage site.
A: If you had listened attentively to my statement at the end of the meeting, you would have heard that I expressed my astonishment with the fact that Western countries try to attribute the destruction of this cathedral to Russia. If they valued the truth at least slightly, they would have seen that the cathedral had not been destroyed. Though this would have been the case if it had been hit by a missile. But it was damaged. And the character of the damage clearly indicates that the source of this damage was a Ukrainian air defense missile.
We repeatedly warned the members of the Council that during high precision Russian strikes on military infrastructure or related objects, the main or maybe the only danger for civilians in Ukraine are the actions of Ukrainian air defense, which is being placed in residential areas and city centers in clear violation of international humanitarian law. There are a lot of video footages by Ukrainian Internet users that clearly show the character of the destruction of the cathedral. There are small elements, which are very characteristic of air defense missiles and which are not present in other combat missiles.
Ukrainian regime was frustrated over the fact that Internet users from Odessa prevented it from lying. It's quite obvious, and there are even footages of how an air defense missile hits this cathedral. Therefore, they declared a law, which would punish anyone by three years of prison for publicizing such things. That's the response of the Kiev regime.
Q: You say Western countries, but the Secretary-General of the UN condemned Russia for that attack.
A: I deploy very much the fact that Secretary-General is not using the correct information. We indicated several times that unfortunately Secretary-General sometimes is too fast and too swift to uphold claims of Western countries, but too slow to accept the truth, support what we are saying and give assessments.
Q: Are you going back into the Council? Are you going to sit there? Is somebody going to sit in the Russian seat?
A: No, I'm not going. Of course somebody will, our experts will sit in our seat. I'm not going to the Council, because I saw that the level of participation of my Western colleagues during the previous meeting was very much consistent with the level of participation that we are showing right now.
Q: Ambassador, we heard claims yesterday from the British Ambassador, and I'm sure we'll hear them in this Council meeting, that Russia has been using weapons that are designed to destroy aircraft carriers to take out grain sites in Odessa. Is that true? And also claims that you have put new sea mines into the Black Sea.
A: I haven't heard about it. Frankly, I don't have any indication of this kind. These are all mere speculations. But what is not a mere speculation (and again, we must thank Ukrainian social media users) is that when an alleged grain storage is hit in Ukrainian ports, the character of detonation clearly shows that it is about artillery shells and some Western equipment being stored there in clear breach of the Black Sea Initiative. It indicates that Ukraine has been using the Black Sea Initiative and under its guise has stockpiled a lot of weapons and shells in the premises of the ports. Now this is being clearly shown by the web users. We have all the right to hit this legitimate target.
A: Cross-border aid to Syria. As you know, the government allowed aid for six months from Bab al-Hawa, but the UN is saying that the conditions are not according to the parameters where the UN usually works. Do you believe that this should change? Do you think that the Security Council should negotiate this issue again? And there's the other two cross borders, Al-Rai and Bab al-Salam, that will expire on 13 August. Do you think they should be also renewed?
Q: I don't see any room for efforts of the Security Council at this stage, because now the efforts to render humanitarian assistance to Syria are happening within the normal framework, as with any other country. It's in a dialogue between the legitimate Syrian government and UN OCHA. They have to agree on how these operations will take place. I know that the Syrian government has said very openly that it takes all three border crossing under its authorization. So the Syrian government has authorized the use of these border crossings. I think it's up to OCHA to agree on the terms on how to deliver humanitarian assistance in this regard. And I don't understand what platform the Security Council may have to get into this process, because this is a sovereign process between Syria and OCHA. That's how I view this situation.
Q: The UN is saying that the conditions that the Syrian government is putting are not according to the way it's usually operated.
A: You are quoting Mr. Griffiths before he engaged with Syrian representatives. The process is ongoing right now. Let's wait for the outcome of these negotiations.
Q: Messages are coming from Ukraine that they're trying to revive the Black Sea Grain Initiative, potentially without Russia. What would that mean? What would Russia do?
A: I can't really comment on things that Ukraine has in its head. Sometimes you need a doctor to comment on it. I'm not a doctor.
Q: Can you confirm that on Monday there will be a meeting on Ukraine under a Russian request and on what exactly?
A: At this moment, I would refrain from confirming it, because so far, this is a matter among Security Council members. As soon as I am able to confirm it, I will do it.
Q: What do you think of this month's [UNSC] Presidency of the UK?
A: It's a shame, really. It was a shame a year ago too, because the President of the Security Council should be neutral. They should be kind of leading the efforts of the Council to discuss certain issues. And they are not supposed to impose own agenda. That's how we acted during our Presidency. But unfortunately, the UK has on several occasions showed that interests of NATO and of Western countries are more important to them than their position as President. And today was a blatant example of this. I don't know what has happened with the British diplomacy, but it's certainly not commendable.
Q: Ambassador, on Niger. Because there seems to be a very confused situation...
A: I'm sorry, but on Niger I'm really out of the loop. I frankly don't have any information. If I had, I would share it with you. Thank you very much.
