Former UK ambassador to Ukraine responds to Russia over damaged church in Tehran
According to Ukrinform, she stated this on the social media platform X.
Simmons was responding to criticism from Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova regarding damage to the Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas in Tehran.
In Zakharova's post on the Russian Foreign Ministry's page, Moscow said it was “shocked by reports of the serious damage inflicted on St Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral in Tehran as a result of yet another barbaric air strike by the US-Israeli tandem” and that Russia condemns any damage to religious sites.
“You hit a monastery in Lviv just last week,” the British diplomat wrote.
Simmons noted that this is far from the first case of churches and other religious institutions being hit by Russian strikes across Ukraine throughout the war.
“Your condemnation of your missile and drone attacks is noted,” she added.
As reported earlier, on March 24 in Lviv, a Russian attack damaged part of the UNESCO World Heritage site Lviv – the Ensemble of the Historic Centre. It is included on the List of World Heritage in Danger and the International List of Cultural Property under Enhanced Protection in accordance with the Second Protocol to the Hague Convention.
Also damaged were the architectural monument of national significance, the Bernardine Monastery Ensemble, and the building of the National Museum-Memorial of Victims of Occupation Regimes "Lontskyi Prison".
