Furious Ukraine hits out at Pope
KYIV: Ukraine has strongly rejected a call by the Pope to “raise the white flag” in its fight against the invading Russians and urged him to “stand on the side of good” against Moscow.
“Our flag is a yellow and blue one,” Dmytro Kuleba, the Ukrainian foreign minister, wrote on X.
“This is the flag by which we live, die and prevail. We shall never raise any other flags.”
There was anger in Kyiv at the weekend when Pope Francis said Ukraine should “have the courage to raise the white flag”. Pope Francis, 87, urged both sides to negotiate before things get worse.
“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,” he said on Swiss TV.
Mr Kuleba hinted at the Holy See’s neutrality during World War II. “At the same time, when it comes to the white flag, we know this Vatican strategy from the first half of the 20th century,” he said, calling on the Holy See to “avoid repeating the mistakes of the past”.
“The strongest is the one who, in the battle between good and evil, stands on the side of good rather than attempting to put them on the same footing and call it ‘negotiations’,” he added.
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.
Inna Sovsun, a Ukrainian MP, said: “There is no point in negotiating with Russia, they never keep what they promise. Surrender means leaving our people in the occupied territories in torture camps, leaving children for brainwashing and facing a new war in 10 years when Russia will recover.”
The row over the Pope’s comments came as Ukraine said Russian shelling in the east had killed three people and wounded a dozen more.
It also said Moscow had launched missile attacks on the northeastern Kharkiv region and sent attack drones across the centre of the country.