Chairman of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience Viktor Yelensky commented on the latest statements of the Pope regarding the Russian historical heritage. It is reported by Radio Liberty.

Yelensky noted that Pope Francis repeatedly expressed support for Ukraine, but at the same time “tried to equalize the aggressor and the victim of aggression.”

“I also know that he regrets these words of his. I also know that the pope believed that this Catherine and this Peter are, against the general backdrop of bloody Russian history, really Europeans who tried to bring Russia closer to Europe. And therefore he spoke about the heritage. But it is not necessary to justify him by the fact that he did not say what he really said,” the head of the SSEFC said.

Yelensky drew attention to the fact that the press service of the Vatican removed these words from the official statement. At the same time, they “have already been heard very well in Russia” as a call for further imperial expansion, he added.