Hundreds of people have protested in Christian areas of the Syrian capital of Damascus after a video emerged showing hooded fighters setting a Christmas tree on fire elsewhere in the country.

“We demand the rights of Christians,” demonstrators chanted as they marched through the city on Christmas Eve.

The overthrow of Bashar al Assad by rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – a group once aligned with Al Qaeda – has sparked concerns for religious minorities in Syria, but the group’s leader has insisted that all faiths will be respected.

The protests erupted after a video spread on social media showing fighters torching a Christmas tree in the Christian-majority town of Suqaylabiyah, near the city of Hama.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the men were foreigners from the Islamist group Ansar al Tawhid.

A demonstrator who gave his name as Georges said he was protesting “injustice against Christians”.

“If we’re not allowed to live our Christian faith in our country, as we used to, then we don’t belong here anymore,” he said.

Read more:
US says it has killed IS leader
US diplomats visit Damascus

A religious leader from HTS, the leading rebel group in the coalition that toppled Assad, claimed that those who set the tree on fire were “not Syrian” and promised they would be punished.

“The tree will be restored and lit up by tomorrow morning”, he said.

A Russian cargo ship that Ukraine claims was sent to Syria to collect weapons has sunk in the Mediterranean Sea, according to officials in Moscow.

Two crew members are missing after an engine room explosion sank the Ursa Major between Spain and Algeria, the foreign ministry said. Fourteen other crew were rescued and taken to Spain.

Ukraine’s military intelligence claimed yesterday that the ship, previously called Sparta III, had been sent to Syria to remove weapons and military equipment after the fall of Bashar al Assad.

In a post on Telegram, the agency said the ship broke down near Portugal but the crew were able to “fix the problem and continue through the Strait of Gibraltar”.

It shared a picture of Sparta III, though referred to the ship in the statement as Sparta. There is another Russian ship in the Mediterranean called Sparta, so it is not fully clear which vessel the agency was referring to.

Ship tracking data from the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) shows the Ursa Major departed from the Russian port of St Petersburg on 11 December. It was last seen sending a signal at 10.04pm GMT on Monday between Algeria and Spain.

Read more:
Protests in Slovakia after PM meets Putin in Moscow
British troops could be deployed to Ukraine to train soldiers

On leaving St Petersburg it had indicated that its next port of call was the Russian port of Vladivostok.

The operator and owner of the ship is a company called SK-Yug, part of shipping and logistics company Oboronlogistics, according to LSEG data.

Assad fled to Moscow from Syria earlier this month after rebels captured the capital of Damascus in a lightning offensive that brought his family’s five-decade rule to an end.

The Kremlin has long been an ally of Assad, who gave Vladimir Putin a Mediterranean seaport and a nearby air base in Syria in return for military support during the country’s civil war, which began in 2011.

Four years later, Russia intervened directly in the civil war and launched its first airstrikes in the country after Islamic State fighters seized the historic city of Palmyra. This proved to be a turning point in the conflict.

A year later, Syrian troops, backed by Russia and Iran, recaptured Aleppo – a significant blow to the rebels.

But in recent weeks Russia has been pulling back its military from the frontlines in northern Syria and the removal of Assad has also thrown the future of Moscow’s bases in the country – the Hmeimim airbase in Latakia and the Tartous naval facility – into question.

Slovakia’s prime minister has drawn criticism from across Europe and from his own people after his surprise visit to Moscow for face-to-face talks with Vladimir Putin on Sunday.

Robert Fico is only the third EU leader to visit Mr Putin in Moscow since the Russian president ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Ukraine latest:
World doing ‘almost nothing’ over Korean troops

The Kremlin said the two leaders discussed “the international situation” and Russian natural gas deliveries.

Russian natural gas still flows through Ukraine and to some other European countries, including Slovakia, under a five-year agreement signed before the war that is due to expire at the end of the year.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy told EU leaders last week that Ukraine had no intention of renewing the deal, which Mr Fico insisted would hurt Slovakia and its interests.

He said his visit to Moscow was a reaction to Mr Zelenskyy’s statement and that Mr Putin had told him that Russia was still ready to deliver gas to the West.

‘It smells like treason’

In Slovakia’s capital, Bratislava, people took to the streets to protest after the meeting, with banners in support of Ukraine as well as unflattering depictions of Mr Fico on display.

One sign simply read: “It smells like treason.”

Mr Zelenskyy said the “unwillingness” shown by Mr Fico to replace Russian gas is a “big security issue” for Europe, and questioned the potential financial incentives being offered to the Slovak leader.

“Why is this leader so dependent on Moscow? What is being paid to him, and what does he pay with?,” Mr Zelenskyy said.

In his nightly address on Monday, Mr Zelenskyy said that Mr Fico had received an offer of compensation for losses from the expiring transit deal, but that he “did not want compensation for the Slovaks”.

Read more:
Ukrainian family separated by war reunited live on Sky News
Russia should have invaded Ukraine ‘earlier’, says Putin

‘Threat to whole of Europe’

In a statement, Ukraine’s foreign ministry said the “weakness, dependence and short-sightedness” of Mr Fico’s energy policy is a “threat to the whole of Europe”.

The Slovak leader’s “persistent attempts” to maintain energy dependence on Moscow is “surprising” and represents a “shameful policy of appeasement”, the Ukrainian ministry added.

The Czech government also criticised Mr Fico’s trip to Moscow, pointing to its own decision to wean itself off Russian energy.

“It was the Czech government that secured independence from Russian energy supplies so that we wouldn’t have to crawl in front of a mass murderer,” Czech foreign minister Jan Lipavsky said.