Ukraine on Monday summoned the Vatican’s envoy to Kyiv after Pope Francis suggested the country should consider raising “the white flag” against Russia, causing fury in Kyiv.
“Due to the statements of Pope Francis, the Apostolic Nuncio was invited to the ministry of foreign affairs of Ukraine,” the ministry said on social media, using the term for a Vatican diplomat. It added that the envoy, Visvaldas Kulbodas, was told Kyiv was “disappointed with the words of the pontiff”.
Ukraine rebuffs Pope Francis calling for talks with Russia
Ukraine rebuffs Pope Francis calling for talks with Russia
In the pope’s comments, which were made during a February interview with Swiss public television that came to light on Sunday, he said the “strongest actor” was the one that “thinks about the people and has the courage of the white flag, and negotiates”.
“As you can imagine, the federal chancellor does not agree with the pope on this issue,” government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said in Berlin on Monday. “It is true that Ukraine is defending itself against an aggressor.”
Kyiv is also receiving a great deal of international support to be able to defend itself against the war of aggression, which violates international law, Hebestreit added.
He may have been referring to a recent call among German military officials that Russia was able to intercept as an unsecured mobile phone line was used. The officers spoke about British soldiers being on the ground in Ukraine to help Ukraine’s military with long-range Storm Shadow missiles, which London has sent to Kyiv.
Peskov did not directly mention the phone call.
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Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that Russian advances had been “halted” in Ukraine and the situation was now “much better” for his troops than over the past three months.
Zelensky also told French broadcaster BFM TV that Ukraine was building “over 1,000km (621 miles)” of fortifications.
One person was killed in Ukrainian shelling of the western Russian region of Kursk on the border with Ukraine, local authorities said.
Another woman suffered injuries as a result of the attack by the Ukrainian armed forces, the governor of the Kursk region, Roman Starovoyt, wrote on Telegram.
He said the village of Goncharovka in the Sudzha district just a few kilometres from the border with Ukraine had come under fire in the morning, presumably from artillery.
The village of Vnesapnoye was also shelled, damaging a gas pipeline and a power line, the governor said. Four villages were without power as a result of the attacks, he added.
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The Russian Defence Ministry did not comment on the attacks, but said six Ukrainian drones had been shot down.
Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago and occupies large parts of the neighbouring country, also regularly fires at targets far behind the front line. During the night, Ukraine reported attacks on the Kharkiv and Odesa regions in particular, with damage to residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure.
Russian border regions close to Ukraine are also increasingly complaining of shelling from the neighbouring country. However, the number of victims and the extent of the damage cannot be compared with the scale of the destruction caused by the Russian military.
Additional reporting by dpa