NATO to blame as well, says the Pope

ROME: The Pope has sparked a controversy by publicly saying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was partly “provoked” by NATO – although he denies he is backing Vladimir Putin.

Pope Francis condemned the “ferocity and cruelty of the Russian troops” and praised the “heroism” of the Ukrainians but warned against viewing the conflict as a fairytale battle between good and evil.

The comments, made in an interview with the Jesuit magazine La Civilta Cattolica, echo those the Pope made in April, when he suggested that NATO had “facilitated” Russian wrath; drawing accusations he was giving credibility to Putin’s narrative of the war.

Francis (pictured) cited the warnings of an unnamed head of state – “a wise man who speaks little, a very wise man indeed” – who had visited him a few months before the war. “He told me that he was very worried about how NATO was

moving. “I asked him why, and he replied, ‘They are barking at the gates of Russia. They don’t understand that the Russians are imperial and can’t have any foreign power getting close to them’. ”

While condemning the brutality of Russian troops, the Pope added that “the danger is that we see only this, which is monstrous, and we do not see the whole drama unfolding behind this war, which was perhaps somehow either provoked or not prevented.”

He insisted that his position did not make him a supporter of the Russian leader. “Someone may tell me at this point, ‘But you are in favour of Putin!’ No, I am not,” he said. “I am simply against reducing the complexity to a distinction between good and bad.”

The conflict was not a Little Red Riding Hood fairytale, he said. “She was good and the wolf was bad. Here is no metaphysical good or bad. What is emerging is something global, involving elements that interlink,” he said, suggesting that geopolitical power plays were fuelling an unnecessary war.