Ukraine's Foreign Minister responds to Pope's calls for "white flag": "Our flag is yellow and blue"
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has responded to Pope Francis’s suggestion that Ukraine should have what he called the "courage of the white flag" and negotiate an end to the war with Russia.
Source: Dmytro Kuleba on X
Quote from Kuleba: "Our flag is a yellow and blue one. This is the flag by which we live, die, and prevail. We shall never raise any other flags."
Details: Kuleba said that the strongest in the battle between good and evil "is the one who stands on the side of good rather than attempting to put them on the same footing and call it ‘negotiations’."
"[W]hen it comes to the white flag, we know [the] Vatican's strategy from the first half of the twentieth century. I urge [them] to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past and to support Ukraine and its people in their just struggle for their lives," Kuleba added.
He thanked the Pope for his "constant prayers for peace", adding that Ukraine continues "to hope that after two years of devastating war in the heart of Europe, the Pontiff will find an opportunity to pay an Apostolic visit to Ukraine to support over a million Ukrainian Catholics, over five million Greek-Catholics, all Christians, and all Ukrainians."
Background:
- In response to Pope Francis’s statement, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said that the Pope should address Russian President Vladimir Putin and urge him to withdraw his occupation forces from Ukraine.
- On 9 March, Reuters reported that Pope Francis said in an interview this February that Ukraine should have what he called "the courage of the white flag" and negotiate an end to the war with Russia.
- The Vatican later clarified the Pope’s words, stressing that he called for a ceasefire and the resumption of negotiations, not the surrender of Ukraine, and emphasising the Pope’s words that "Negotiation is never a surrender."
- Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs said, in response to the Pope’s comment, that "one cannot surrender to evil".
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