CV NEWS FEED // The Kremlin has issued its response to controversial remarks made by Pope Francis last week around the implication that Ukraine should surrender and “negotiate” with Russia.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday that the Pope’s “white flag” comments made last week were “quite understandable,” but that Russia’s efforts to engage in peace talks have been met with “absolutely harsh refusals.”
“Unfortunately, both the statements of the pope and the repeated statements of other parties, including ours, have recently received absolutely harsh refusals,” said Peskov according to a Reuters report.
In an interview clip released by the Swiss Radio and Television (RSI) last week, Pope Francis responded to a question regarding the possibility of Ukrainian surrender.
“In Ukraine, there are those who ask for the courage of surender, of the white flag. But others say that would legitimise the strongest. What do you think?” Lorenzo Buccella asked in the interview for his cultural magazine, Cliché.
The Holy Father responded:
It’s an interpretation. But I believe that it is stronger who sees the situation, who thinks of the people, who has the courage of the white flag, to negotiate.
And today we can negotiate with the help of international powers. The word negotiate is a courageous word. When you see that you are defeated, that things are not going, you need to have the courage to negotiate.
Prominent Ukrainian figures such as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and His Beatitude Sviatoslav Schevchuk, Head of the Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine have spoken out against Francis’ comments.
“One thing that we know for sure is that if Ukraine is even partially conquered, God forbid, the frontier of death will expand,” His Beatitude said in an address to members of the Permanent Synod in New York during his recent visit to the US.
“Come to Ukraine and see!” he added. “If any of you do not believe in the victory of Ukraine, perhaps it’s time to go to confession!”
“Russian murderers and torturers are not moving further into Europe only because they are being held back by Ukrainians with weapons in their hands and under the blue and yellow flag,” Zelenskyy wrote in a statement on Sunday:
In Ukraine, there were many once-white walls of houses and churches that are now scorched and ruined by Russian shells. And this speaks very eloquently about who has to stop for the war to end.
Vatican officials Matteo Bruni and Cardinal Pietro Parolin have both since issued clarifications of the Pope’s statements. Bruni, who is the Director of the Holy See Press Office, told journalists on Saturday that the Pope’s comments were meant to call for a ceasefire and peace talks.
Parolin most recently told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that as the “aggressor,” Russia “should first and foremost cease fire.”
