Pope calls on Ukraine to hold peace talks with Russia again after being criticised for controversial statements

Pope Francis has once again urged Ukraine to hold peaceful negotiations with Russia after being criticised due to his position concerning the war in Ukraine.

Source: European Pravda with reference to Vatican News

Details: Pope Francis mentioned "war-torn peoples of Ukraine and the Holy Land, Palestine, and Israel, who suffer so greatly from the horror of war" in his weekly audience in the Vatican.

"Let us never forget…war is always a defeat. One cannot go on in war. We must make every effort to negotiate," the Pope stressed.

Background:

• 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 representative of the Vatican noted in his commentary that the Pope’s statement was not a call for the capitulation of Ukraine. 
• His claim caused a stir and met a lot of criticism.
• 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. Peter Stano, spokesperson for the European Commission, stressed at a briefing in Brussels that peace lies in the hands of one person, and that's Vladimir Putin, who continues to wage war every day.
• Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba 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. He stated that Ukraine’s flag is not white but a yellow and blue one.

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