The head of the Russian Orthodox Church has praised the Russian military intervention in Syria which he says was designed 'to protect the Christian minority' there from persecution and killings by Islamists.

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, who enjoys a close relationship with the Russian President Vladimir Putin, said in his Christmas interview with the Rossiya-1 TV channel: 'Besides solving some issues... linked to stabilising the situation, preventing military threats and preventing the takeover of power by terrorists... there was a very important idea in Russia's participation – to protect the Christian minority. Thanks to Russia's participation, the genocide of Christians was thwarted.'

According to quotations from the interview provided by the Russian news agency Tass.com, Patriarch Kirill added that if the Islamist forces had maintained their influence and activity, the situation in Syria would have repeated the Iraqi scenario after the toppling of Saddam Hussein.

'During Hussein's regime I visited Iraq and its northern areas, and I was in Mosul. I visited ancient Christian monasteries. I saw this pietism of people and was glad that Christian churches calmly exist in the Muslim environment. Now almost nothing has been left,' he said. 'The monasteries have been destroyed and the churches have been blown up, 85 per cent of Christians have been either eliminated or expelled from Iraq's territory. And this could have happened in Syria.'

The Russian military intervention in Syria, which began in September 2015, has led to thousands of civilian deaths, with airstrikes that have propped up the regime of Bashar Assad. According to Amnesty International, in late February 2016 Russian warplanes deliberately targeted civilians and rescue workers during their bombing campaign. Amnesty has said that 'Russia is guilty of some the most egregious war crimes' it had seen 'in decades'. 

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported that since the intervention began, Russian air strikes had killed 1,000 civilians, including 200 children, by the middle of February 2016.

The Syrian war has also seen areas such as the Eastern Ghouta being bombed and the people there starved. Once a fertile agricultural belt, the Eastern Ghouta is in the midst of a humanitarian crisis as government forces have tightened their siege of the region, closing tunnels that had been used by the opposition to smuggle in food.

Human rights groups have frequently accused the Syrian government of using starvation as a weapon of war. 

The Patriarch also noted that the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as the Catholic Church, will continue to provide humanitarian assistance to Syrians. 'We also have bilateral agreements with the Catholic Church to provide humanitarian assistance together. There are different areas in which we are acting. I hope they will make their contribution to providing real assistance to those who are still suffering in Syria,' he said.