Russian Envoy Voices Protest Over Pope Calling Minority Soldiers In Ukraine 'Cruelest'

VATICAN CITY (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th November, 2022) Russian Ambassador to the Vatican Alexander Avdeev told Sputnik the had protested to the Holy See diplomatic corps against Pope Francis' statement that Russia's ethnic minority soldiers were "the cruelest" in the military conflict in Ukraine.

"I have expressed outrage at such insinuations and noted that nothing can shake the cohesion and unity of the multinational Russian people," Avdeev said.

Meanwhile, Magomed Daudov, the chairman of the regional parliament of the Chechen Republic, Russia's Federal subject, slammed the pontiff's words as "primitive reasoning," adding that there was not a single case of a war crime committed by Chechens and Buryats in Ukraine.

"If he had bothered to listen to inhabitants of the liberated territories, he would have learned that the Chechen fighters, just like the Buryats and representatives of hundreds of other peoples of Russia, have become saviors for these people.

But no, it's easier to speak out in line with the US agenda. How can a spiritual leader, whose diocese includes representatives of most peoples of the world, allow himself to reason on the national issue in such a primitive way?!" Daudov said on Telegram.

In an interview with Jesuit news outlet America Magazine published on Monday, Pope Francis claimed that soldiers "who are of Russia but are not of the Russian tradition, such as the Chechens, the Buryati" had proved themselves to be "the cruelest" during the military operation that Moscow launched in Ukraine in February.