Father Gennady Zaridze spoke at a funeral last week for Kirill Ulyashev, 21, who is thought to have died two weeks earlier on the third day of the invasion. His remains were brought home to the family

The priest said Ulyashev was a “warrior of Christ” who “fought against evil, Satanic spirits: Ukrainian Nazis, created by American multinational corporations,” Zaridze said, according to The Moscow Times.

When Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his “special military operation” in Ukraine nearly four weeks ago, he said he wanted to “denazify” the nation. Putin has made baseless accusations that the Ukrainian government is run by Nazis. After the invasion began, a Russian journalist said some people in Russia are “brainwashed” and believe their country is fighting against Adolf Hitler collaborators in Ukraine, even though the Nazi leader died 77 years ago.

At the time of Ulyashev’s death, the 21-year-old was in the village of Bucha, near the capital city of Kyiv, when his brigade “encountered the Nazis” while carrying out a combat mission, an officer from his brigade said at the funeral. Ulyashev was a part of an airborne assault division known as the Pskov Paratroopers, The Moscow Times reported.

World leaders have accused Russia of acting like Nazi Germany before the start of World War II by launching an unprovoked attack against Ukraine. The Ukrainian ambassador to the United Nations, Sergiy Kyslytsya, said Russia was participating in Nazi “cosplay,” or costume play. Meanwhile, last week Putin held a Moscow rally in support of the invasion, standing in front of a sign that read “For a world without Nazism.”

During the rally, Putin praised Russian soldiers for their fighting, saying they “shield each other from bullets with their bodies like brothers” and were united more than ever.

Since the beginning of the war, Russia has said, 498 soldiers have been killed in the conflict and another 1,500 have been wounded, but the country has not updated those numbers since March 2. On Wednesday, NATO estimated that between 7,000 and 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed, the Associated Press reported.

On Monday, the pro-Kremlin newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda published a story saying that Russian Defense Ministry data showed 9,861 Russian soldiers have been killed and another 16,153 have been wounded. The figures were later removed, and the newspaper said it was hacked, The Guardian reported.

U.S. intelligence officials estimate that more than 7,000 Russian soldiers have been killed, while Ukrainian officials estimate more than 15,000, The Guardian said.

Update 3/23/22, 2:20 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information and background.