The pontiff spoke out about the “cruelty” unleashed by invading troops in Ukraine during an interview with Jesuit magazine America published on Monday.

“When I speak about Ukraine, I speak about the cruelty because I have much information about the cruelty of the troops that come in,” Francis said. “Generally, the cruelest are perhaps those who are of Russia but are not of the Russian tradition, such as the Chechens, the Buryati and so on.” …

In the interview, the pontiff appeared to draw a distinction between the mostly Muslim Chechens and Buddhist Buryats on the one hand, and ethnic Russians on the other.

“I expressed indignation at such insinuations and noted that nothing can shake the cohesion and unity of the multinational Russian people,” Avdeev was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova was even less diplomatic in her condemnation of the comments, calling them a “perversion.”