The Russian government has condemned comments made by the Pope that some minority groups of soldiers have behaved worse than others in the invasion of Ukraine.
"Generally, the cruellest are perhaps those who are of Russia but are not of the Russian tradition, such as the Chechens, the Buryats and so on," Pope Francis told <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2022/11/28/pope-francis-interview-america-244225?fbclid=IwAR03Ij0hWV72xrOipTmIIlgqExi7tA1dpuTE39O1LQGtkr5J31TFN_n5rUQ"><strong>America</strong></a>, a US-based Jesuit magazine in an interview last week.
The Pope also called the Holodomor famine caused by the Kremlin in Ukraine in the 1930s a genocide. As many as four million Ukrainians died in this famine which was caused by the collectivisation of farms under Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
Russia called the remarks a "perversion", and said national groups were "one family".
Chechens, an ethnic group originating in Chechnya, in the south-west of Russia, are mostly Muslim.
Buryats, a Mongol ethnic group indigenous to Buryatia, in eastern Siberia, are traditionally Buddhists and shamans. The majority religion in Russia is Orthodox Christianity.
Pope Francis added that "the one who invades is the Russian state".
Pope Francis was asked during the interview about accusations against him for not condemning Russia for the invasion of Ukraine.
“When I speak about Ukraine,” he replied, “I speak of a people who are martyred. If you have a martyred people, you have someone who martyrs them.
"Why do I not name Putin? Because it is not necessary; it is already known. However, sometimes people latch onto a detail. Everyone knows my stance, with Putin or without Putin, without naming him.
The Pope said he had spoken to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky three times by phone, and communicated with Russian President Vladimir Putin through the ambassador to the Holy See.
“On the second day of the war, I went to the Russian embassy [to the Holy See], an unusual gesture because the pope never goes to an embassy,” he added.
The Pope also stressed that he had been represented by his cardinals in Ukraine, included Cardinal Czerny, Gallagher and Krajewski, the latter of whom has been four times, including during Holy Week last year.
“I mean the presence of the Holy See with the cardinals is very strong, and I am in continual contact with people in positions of responsibility,” said the Pope.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova condemned the comments, according to RT, the Russian state-controlled news outlet.
"This is no longer Russophobia, it's a perversion on a level I can't even name," she said.
"We are one family with Buryats, Chechens and other representatives of our multinational and multi-confessional country," Ms Zakharova later wrote on Telegram.
