POPE SAYS HE WANTS TO MEET PUTIN IN MOSCOW TO DISCUSS UKRAINE

Tue 03 May 2022:

In an interview released on Tuesday, Pope Francis stated that he requested a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow to try to end the conflict in Ukraine, but that he has yet to receive a response.

The pope also told the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera that Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill, who has backed the conflict, “cannot become Putin’s altar boy.”

Francis, who made an unprecedented visit to the Russian embassy when the war started, told the newspaper that about three weeks into the conflict, he asked the Vatican’s top diplomat to send a message to Putin.

He said the message was “that I was willing to go to Moscow. Certainly, it was necessary for the Kremlin leader to allow an opening. We have not yet received a response and we are still insisting”.

He added: “I fear that Putin cannot, and does not, want to have this meeting at this time. But how can you not stop so much brutality?”

Before the interview, Francis, 85, had not specifically mentioned Russia or Putin publicly since the start of the conflict on February 24. But he has left little doubt which side he has criticised, using terms such as unjustified aggression and invasion and lamenting atrocities against civilians.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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