Photo: REMO CASILLI/REUTERS / Deutsche Welle
Pope Francis revealed, in an interview published today Corriere della Sera, who has asked to travel to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin to ask him to stop the war in Ukraine, but has not yet received a response.
The pope explained that while he has spoken with the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelensky, he has not yet spoken with Putin, from whom he received a call in December for his birthday, and that after 20 days of war asked the Cardinal Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, to send the Russian president a message that he was willing to go to Moscow.
No answer, insisting
But, according to the Corriere della Sera, Pope Francis’ concern is that Putin, moment, it will not stop.
“Of course, it was necessary for me to he Kremlin leader allowed some windows. We still have not received a response and we continue to insist, although I am afraid that Putin cannot and does not want to have this meeting right now”, explained the pontiff.
At the same time, for the time being, Francis stressed that he will not go to Ukraine: “I feel that I don’t have to go. First I have to go to Moscow, first I have to meet with Putin. But I am a priest, what can I do? I do what I can. If Putin opened the door…”, he advanced.
“Weapons are being tested in that land”
Regarding the role of NATO in this conflict, the Pope affirms that he does not know if Putin’s “anger” was provoked by the presence of the Atlantic Alliance at the gates of Russia but believes that “it did facilitate it.”
On whether it is legal to send weapons by countries to Ukraine to defend themselves from the invasion, the pope does not say that he is not capable of responding and added:
“I am too far from the question of whether it is right to supply the Ukrainians. What is clear is that weapons are being tested in that land. The Russians now know that tanks are of little use and are thinking about other things. Wars are fought for this: to test the weapons we have produced”.
“The arms trade is a scandal ”
According to Francisco, “this was the case of the Spanish Civil War before the Second World War” .
“The arms trade is a scandal, few oppose it. Two or three years ago a ship arrived in Genoa loaded with weapons that had to be transferred to a large freighter to transport them to Yemen. The port workers did not want to do it. They said: let us think of the children of Yemen. It’s a small thing, but a nice gesture. There should be so many like this”, he added.
Patriarch Kirill justifies the war
The pontiff denied that the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, could collaborate in arresting Putin because in the videoconference they had, “the first twenty minutes he read me all the justifications for the war”.
“I had a scheduled meeting with him in Jerusalem on 14 of June. It would be our second face to face, nothing to do with the war. But now he also agrees that meeting could be a mixed signal, “he explained.
Orbán assures that the Russians “have a plan”
He also revealed that in his recent meeting with the Hungarian president, Victor Orbán, he assured him that the Russians “have a plan and that on May 9 everything will be over ”.
“I hope so, that way we would also understand the speed of escalation these days. Because now it’s not just Donbas, it’s Crimea, it’s Odessa, it’s taking away Ukraine’s Black Sea access, that’s all. I am pessimistic, but we must make all possible gestures to stop the war”, he stressed.
rml (efe, reuters)