‘War is a failure of politics and of humanity’: Pope declares Putin’s invasion of Ukraine a ‘shameful capitulation’ as he tweets in Russian on second day of conflict and visits embassy to ‘express his concern’
- Pope spoke out after visiting the Russian Embassy in unprecedented move
- He tweeted that ‘Every war leaves our world worse’ in English and Russian post
- Pope Francis has met Putin before at a private audience in the Vatican in 2015
The Pope has intervened over the invasion of Ukraine, describing war-waging as a ‘shameful capitulation’, just hours after an unprecedented visit to the Russian embassy.
In a Russian language tweet on Friday Pope Francis denounced the ills of conflict on the second day of the large-scale Russian invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.
He wrote in separate English and Russian tweets: ‘Every war leaves our world worse than it was before.
‘War is a failure of politics and of humanity, a shameful capitulation, a stinging defeat before the forces of evil.’
Earlier on Friday Pope Francis went to the Russian embassy to the Holy See to relay his concern over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to Moscow’s ambassador, in an unprecedented departure from diplomatic protocol.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said the pope spent more than half an hour at the embassy.
Pope Francis has met Putin before at a private audience in a private audience back in 2015
irefighters try to extinguish a blaze at a damaged residential building at Koshytsa Street, a suburb of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, earlier today
A residential building damaged by a missile on February 25, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine earlier today
‘He went to express his concern over the war,’ Bruni said, declining to give details about the visit or the conversation.
Bruni would not comment on an Argentinian media report that the pope, 85, had offered the Vatican’s mediation. The ambassador, Aleksandr Avdeyev, denied this, according to the Rome correspondent of Russian TASS new agency.
Avdeyev told the RIA Novosti news agency that the meeting lasted about 40 minutes and that the pope expressed ‘great concern’ about the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.
The ambassador was quoted as saying that the pope ‘called for the protection of children, the protection of the sick and suffering, and the protection of people.’
When contacted for comment by Reuters, the Russian embassy said the ambassador was not available.
The visit by a pope to an embassy to talk to an ambassador in a time of conflict is unprecedented in living memory.
The moment a Russian missile struck a fuel store near the village of Kulinichi close to Kharkiv city in eastern Ukraine
The enormous explosion lit up the night sky and was captured by one Ukranian family sheltering in their home nearby
Foreign envoys are usually summoned by the Vatican’s Secretary of State or meet with the pope in the Apostolic Palace.
In an interview with Reuters of Feb. 14, before the invasion, Ukraine’s ambassador to the Vatican, Andriy Yurash, said Kyiv would be open to a Vatican mediation of the conflict.
In a statement on Thursday, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said the Holy See hoped that those who hold the destiny of the world in their hands would have a ‘glimmer of conscience’.
World leaders have accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of a flagrant violation of international law by launching the biggest attack by one state against another in Europe since World War Two.
Francis made many appeals for peace in Ukraine before the invasion on Thursday, but has not spoken publicly since. He has proclaimed next Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, as a day of prayer and fasting for peace in Ukraine.
The Vatican announced separately on Friday that Francis would not be able to preside at the Ash Wednesday services because of an acute flare up of pain in his knee. He also will have to skip a trip to Florence this Sunday
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