Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday called Pope Francis “un-Christian” for his remarks about the cruelty of ethnic minority Russian soldiers in Ukraine.
“Pope Francis calls for talks but also recently made an incomprehensible statement, completely un-Christian, singling out two Russian nationalities into some category from which atrocities can be expected during hostilities,” Lavrov said in televised remarks. Russia has been accused of committing war crimes during its invasion of Ukraine.
“Of course this doesn’t help the cause and the authority of the Holy See,” Lavrov added.
Pope Francis said in an interview with the Jesuit magazine America published Monday that some of the “cruelest” troops among Russia’s ranks in Ukraine “are not of the Russian tradition,” but minorities like “the Chechens, the Buryats and so on.”
Chechens, originating in the southwest of Russia, are mostly Muslim. Buryats, indigenous to Buryatia in eastern Siberia, traditionally have mainly Buddhist beliefs.
In the same interview the Pope also called out Russian aggression, saying that it is “very clear” that “the one who invades is the Russian state” and added that he talked to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the phone three times and helped broker prisoner swaps.
The Vatican’s website was hit by a cyberattack in the days after the Pope criticized Russia.
Elena Giordano contributed reporting.
