The situation in the Middle East, in particular, in Syria where extremist militant groups are carrying out real ethnic cleansing, mass murders of people on the basis of national and religious affiliation, is of particular concern, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday.

"It is astonishing how easily the West does not notice numerous crimes in various parts of the world if these crimes do not prevent the West from advancing its global agenda, aiming to cling to a disappearing hegemony and attempting to continue living at the expense of others," Lavrov noted.

The foreign  minister added that Russia “will not leave the Orthodox Christians of Ukraine in misery, and will achieve that their legitimate rights are respected and canonical Orthodoxy returns to its central place in the spiritual life of the people on Ukrainian lands.”

“The guarantee that these objectives will be achieved is the Russian Federation’s position on a fair settlement of the Ukrainian crisis created by the West. This position was once again unequivocally confirmed yesterday by Russian President [Vladimir] Putin, following the results of his telephone conversation with US President [Donald] Trump,” noted Sergey Lavrov.