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Kalmyk Buddhist leader speaks out against war in Ukraine

Telo Tulku Rinpoche, the Supreme Lama of the Kalmyk People, said in a newly posted interview that Russia’s war against Ukraine is wrong and that the Ukrainians are in the right for defending their country.

“This is such great suffering. I think it’s wrong; this war is unnecessary. Moreover, we live in the 21st century. Everyone wants to live peacefully, every country wants to develop, and nobody wants to suffer,” the Lama said in an interview on the YouTube channel Alchemy of the Soul.

Telo Tulku Rinpoche also said that Ukraine is “right, of course”: “[Ukraine] is defending its country, its land, its truth, its Constitution, its people. It’s very difficult to say and to accept that Russia is right. It’s very hard to say — and I can’t.”

The Buddhist leader is currently in Mongolia, where he fled after the arrest of American basketball star Brittney Griner. Telo Tulku Rinpoche is an American citizen but spent 30 years working in Russia’s Republic of Kalmykia.

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