GROZNY, November 29. /TASS/. Chechen and Buryat servicemen have not committed a single war crime, on the contrary, they are battling neo-Nazism in Ukraine alongside the representatives of other Russia’s ethnicities, Speaker of the Chechen Parliament Magomed Daudov wrote on his Telegram channel, commenting on Pope Francis’ remarks in an interview with US media outlets on the "cruelty" of the Buryats and Chechens.

"I don’t know how the pontiff justified his arguments but there is not a single fact indicating that a war crime has been committed by the representatives of our nations. If he bothered to listen to the residents of the liberated territories, he would have learned that the Chechen fighters, much like the Buryats and representatives of hundreds of other ethnicities of the Russian Federation became saviors for these people. But no, it is easier to say something that fits in with the US agenda," he wrote.

He also reiterated that the Pope supported the legalization of same-sex marriages which contradicts the Koran and the Bible.

"Neo-Nazism, which blossomed on the support of the West and flourished in Ukraine, became an ideological extension of the ‘collective West’ in its ugliest incarnation, bringing death, destruction and genocide," Daudov added.

Earlier, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the Pope’s statements are not simply a display of Russophobia, but also an off-the-charts distortion of the truth.