Russia protests at pope’s comments

Russia has lodged a formal protest with the Vatican over Pope Francis's latest condemnation of atrocities in Ukraine, in which the pontiff blamed most of the cruelty on Chechens and other minorities in an apparent effort to spare ethnic Russian troops from criticism.

The Kremlin's ambassador to the Holy See, Alexander Avdeev, said he met a Vatican official on Monday to express his "indignation" over Francis's comments.

In his comments, Francis defended his usual reluctance to call out president Vladimir Putin by name, saying it is clear that Ukraine is the "martyred" victim in the war.

But he also said that, while it was the Russian state that invaded 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".

The Pope's apparent distinction between the mostly Muslim chechen sand buddhist Bury at sand ethnic Russian fighters angered Moscow.