You apparently missed my point, which was not to defend the Russian invasion or its propaganda but to explain what may have caused the Ukrainian priest to make his claims. In the aftermath of the Maidan Revolution, the country was very unstable and extremist groups like Azof filled the void and often acted as proxies - invited or not - for the government. It does not seem farfetched to me that a nationalist paramilitary group would target civilians deemed sympathetic to Russia and that an Orthodox priest might interpret that as an attack on Christianity. By the way, he explicitly denied that only Orthodox Christians were targeted.
Was I accusing you of defending them? I was just responding to the talking point you shared.
By the way, he explicitly denied that only Orthodox Christians were targeted.
According to the Russians, Jews, Gypsies, basically all minorities were allegedly facing targeted attacks on the streets of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Russians defaced synagogues, kidnapped and tortured to death Crimean tatars, and persecuted Jews and Gypsies.
Your "Russian Orthodox Priest" is himself little better than a Nazi and should not be taken seriously.