Kyiv slams Pope’s ‘white flag’ call, vows no surrender to Russia
Russia, meanwhile, said one woman was killed in Ukrainian shelling of a border village.
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He was responding to the Pope’s interview to Swiss broadcaster RTS in which the Catholic leader raised the prospect of surrender – two years after Kyiv has battled Russian forces on its territory.
“I believe that the strongest are those who see the situation, think about the people, and have the courage to raise the white flag and negotiate,” Pope Francis said in an interview conducted in early February and broadcast on Saturday.
“At the same time, when it comes to the white flag, we know this Vatican strategy from the first half of the 20th century,” Kuleba said, calling on the Holy See to “avoid repeating the mistakes of the past”.
Ukraine’s ambassador to the Vatican, Andrii Yurash, went further, comparing the Pope’s negotiation suggestion to talking to Adolf Hitler:
“[The] lesson is only one – if we want to finish war, we have to do everything to kill [the] Dragon!,” he said on social media.
After the interview was broadcast, Francis offered fresh prayers for “martyred Ukraine”, as Vatican officials said his call was simply intended to end fierce fighting.
But in his evening address on Sunday, President Volodymyr Zelensky renewed Ukraine’s criticism.
Ukrainians of all faiths stood up to defend their country when Russia invaded, he said. “Christians, Muslims, Jews – everyone … They support us with prayer, conversation, and deeds.
“This is what the church is – with people. And not two and a half thousand kilometres away, somewhere to mediate virtually between someone who wants to live and someone who wants to destroy you.”
Some Western diplomats joined the criticism.
“Russia is the aggressor and breaks international law! Therefore Germany asks Moscow to stop the war, not Kyiv!” said Bernhard Kotsch, Germany’s envoy to the Vatican.
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Kuleba said Kyiv hoped Francis would visit his war-torn country after more than two years of battling its bigger neighbour.
In Ukraine itself, officials reported the latest deaths.
“Three people died as a result of today’s shelling in the Donetsk region,” said the head of the embattled region, Vadym Filashkin, on social media.
He said rescuers pulled out two bodies “from under the rubble of a house” in the town of Dobropillya, which he said Russia attacked with Iranian-made Shahed drones at night.
A 66-year-old man was also killed in the frontline town of Chasiv Yar, Filashkin said.
Further south, a Russian nighttime strike on the east Ukrainian town of Myrnograd wounded a dozen people, Kyiv said. Myrnograd lies in the Donetsk region around 40km (25 miles) from the front line with Russian forces.
Kyiv also said it had shot down more than two dozen Iranian-made Shahed attack drones launched by Russia across central and southern regions, including the Kyiv region.
Russia on Sunday said Ukrainian shelling killed a woman in the border village of Kulbaki, 10km (6 miles) from Ukraine in the Kursk region.
“As a result of a direct hit from a shell, a residential building caught fire and a local woman died. Her husband had extensive burns and is now receiving qualified medical care,” Kursk governor Roman Starovoyt said.
In Moscow-occupied Ukraine, Russian-installed official Denis Pushilin said Kyiv had shelled a bread factory at night in the city of Gorlovka, wounding four workers.