“Our flag is yellow and blue. This is the flag by which we live, die and conquer. We will never raise any other flag.” The Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, wrote this on
“We thank His Holiness Pope Francis for his constant prayers for peace, and we continue to hope that after two years of devastating war in the heart of Europe, the Pontiff will find the opportunity to make an apostolic visit to Ukraine to support over one million of Ukrainian Catholics, over five million Greek Catholics, all Christians and all Ukrainians”, added Kuleba.
Before him, the Ukrainian embassy to the Holy See had published a statement on social media in which it underlined that “When we talk about the third world war, which we have now, it is necessary to learn the lessons from the second war: someone then spoke seriously about the peace negotiations with Hitler and white flag to satisfy him?”
On the other hand, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, wrote on social media that “Ukraine is wounded but undefeated.
Ukraine is exhausted, but remains standing. In Ukraine no one has the chance to surrender! And all those who look with skepticism at our ability to stand, we say: come to Ukraine and see!”.
ANSA Agency The Pope, ‘Kiev must have the courage of the white flag’ – News – Ansa.it ‘Negotiating is not surrender’. In Gaza ‘war of two irresponsibles’ (ANSA) According to Paris, Moscow ‘only speaks the language of power relations’
The Ukrainian authorities were echoed by the French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné, who in an interview with La Tribune Dimanche asked: “How can one think that faced with an expansionist power, an imperialist country, one can afford to taking a step aside? It would mean giving him the opportunity to take advantage of it to move forward. We must speak the same language as Russia, that of power relations. We are very naive to think that we should set our own limits, while it is Russia that violates international law”.
To a question on the hypothesis, raised by President Emmanuel Macron, of a future sending of troops in support of Kiev, Séjourné states: “the issue is knowing whether Russia can be brought to an end to the war in another way than that of support Ukraine to the maximum. History gives us some examples of the impasse of the strategies of detachment and weakness. Those who, in May 1939, did not want to die for Danzig, only encouraged Hitler.”
For the minister, “History has shown us that, when countries allow their foreign policy to be dictated by an imperialist country, then a fire can be risked. Standing up to Russia therefore means protecting the French and peace. It is this is true patriotism”
The Ukrainian community in Italy: ‘Shocking and deeply offensive words’
“Pope Bergoglio’s words on the courage of (raising) the white flag”, on “negotiating when you see that you are defeated are shocking, embarrassing and deeply offensive towards a people who have been trying to survive the terrible and criminal aggression for over two years Russian”. This is what Oles Horodetskyy, president of the Christian Association of Ukrainians in Italy, declared in a post on Facebook.
“We respond to the Kremlin executioner’s request to surrender with resistance; we would never have imagined receiving the same request from our Pope, head of the Catholic Church and preacher of the Gospel. For a Christian, it is unacceptable to surrender to the evil and sin that represents today’s Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Defending one’s life and home is the sacrosanct duty of every citizen. Precisely in this difficult moment – continues Horodetskyy – when American aid is blocked and Ukraine risks remaining isolated and at the mercy of the aggressor, hearing these unfortunate appeals from the Pope is highly disappointing.Ukraine was not
defeat and we saw no desire to surrender on the part of our people.”
“We expect from the Pope a strong condemnation of the Russian sins of aggression, mass murder, violence and destruction. We expect from the Pope an appeal to Putin to stop the aggression and leave Ukraine. We expect the Pope to be a promoter of a just peace and certainly not a moral ally of the aggressor. The word has great importance – concluded Horodetskyy – especially when it is the word of the Pontiff, and it must be used with great prudence and responsibility so as not to damage the Church of Christ and the faith of his devotees”.
Moscow: ‘The Pope does not speak to Kiev, he speaks to the West’
In his call for negotiations, Pope Francis is speaking not to Kiev, but to the West, which uses Ukraine as “a tool” for its “ambitions.” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told ANSA.
“As I see it – the spokeswoman underlined – the Pope asks the West to put aside its ambitions and admit that it was wrong”. As for Russia, “we have never blocked negotiations,” Zakharova said.
According to the spokeswoman, “the Ukraine project” of the USA, Great Britain and the NATO countries in general, “has failed”. A project started in 2014 “under the banner of democracy” but which in reality was “a coup d’état, an unconstitutional regime change” in Kiev.
The spokeswoman recalled, among other things, the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in the spring of 2022 in Istanbul, which were then
blocked. Only in 2023, he added, following interviews with Ukrainian officials (in particular the then chief negotiator of
Kiev, David Arakhamia, ed.) it was made clear that these negotiations were blocked “under pressure from Boris Johnson”, then
British Prime Minister.
Then, under “US pressure”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree, still in force, prohibiting negotiations with Moscow. All this because, said the spokeswoman for Russian diplomacy, “in the mind of the West there was only one solution, war”. Thus, she added, “Ukraine was sacrificed as a tool.”
“Unfortunately – Zakharova said again – they sacrificed the Ukrainian people, the Ukrainian state and the peace of the world only for their ambitions. This is why today the Pope asks them: ‘put your ambitions aside and admit that you were wrong ‘”.
The Pontiff, according to Zakharova, speaks to the West, and not to Kiev, “because everyone in the world understands that Ukraine is not independent, that the Kiev regime is under pressure from the West”. Furthermore, he added, “every expert, every politician, every
diplomat today understands” that the situation in Ukraine “is at a dead end” and for this reason “many diplomats and countries are
asking for negotiations.”
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Source: Ansa
I have been working as a journalist for over 10 years. In that time, I have covered the news from all corners of the world, and written about everything from politics to business.I’m now a full-time author, and my work can be found at Global happenings. My aim is to bring you up-to-date news and views on global affairs, in a format that is easy to read and understand.
