"White flag" slogan
“White flag”: Selenskyj rejects Pope’s appeal
Pope Francis' appeal to Ukraine to negotiate with the government in Moscow is causing diplomatic upheaval. The Ukrainian president rejects the misleading statements, while the Kremlin feels vindicated in its stance.
"As I see it, the Pope is asking the West to put aside its ambitions and admit that it was wrong," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the Italian news agency Ansa. The West is using Ukraine to weaken Russia, Zakharova claimed. She went on to explain that Russia had never blocked negotiations. However, Russian President Vladimir Putin had already rejected every offer of talks at the beginning of 2022 despite a diplomatic offensive by Western politicians.
Zelensky sharply rejects Pope's appeal
In a video address on Sunday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sharply rejected the Pope's appeal to raise the "white flag". The Church is with the people, "not two and a half thousand kilometers away, somewhere, to mediate virtually between someone who wants to live and someone who wants to destroy you," Selensky emphasized.
"When Russian evil started this war on February 24, all Ukrainians stood up to defend themselves. Christians, Muslims, Jews - everyone," said Selenskyj. He thanked all Ukrainian military chaplains. They were on the front line, they protected life and humanity, they supported with prayers, conversations and deeds. "That's what the church is - with the people."
"Armed Ukrainians under the blue and yellow flag"
In his speech, Selensky directly alluded to the Pope's statements in an interview with Swiss television. The Russian "murderers and torturers" would only stop moving further into Europe because they were being held back by armed Ukrainians "under the blue and yellow flag". Many walls of houses and churches in Ukraine that were "once white" had been burned and destroyed by Russian shells. "And that says a lot about who must stop in order for the war to end," explained the Ukrainian head of state.
With his misleading appeal for peace negotiations in Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, the pontiff had triggered massive opposition. The statements by the head of the Catholic Church were understood in Ukraine and by many of its supporters as a one-sided appeal to Kiev alone - by some even as a call for capitulation. The 87-year-old also used the term "white flag" in reference to the difficulties of the Ukrainian army - in times of war for centuries the sign of surrender, i.e. giving up without a fight against the enemy troops.
Vatican felt compelled to explain
The Pope's words, according to which Ukraine should have "the courage to fly the white flag and negotiate", were disseminated by the media on Saturday evening. They were taken from an interview between the head of the Catholic Church and the Italian-language Swiss broadcaster RSI, which is to be broadcast in full on March 20. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni hastened to classify the statements. In a report by "Vatican News", which also appeared in Ukrainian, Bruni explained that the Pope had "above all wanted to call for a ceasefire and revive the courage to negotiate".
When you see that you are being defeated, that things are not going well, you have to have the courage to negotiate.
Papst Franziskus in dem Interview mit dem Sender RSI
With these statements, the Pope had taken up the image of the white flag introduced by the interviewer, Bruni explained. The meaning of the statement was that Francis wanted a "diplomatic solution for a just and lasting peace".
Picking up on the interviewer's wording
In the interview, journalist Lorenzo Buccella asked the Pope: "In Ukraine, there are those who call for the courage to surrender, for the white flag. But others say that this would legitimize the strongest. What do you say to that?" Francis replied: "That is one way of interpreting it. But I think that the stronger person is the one who recognizes the situation, who thinks of the people, who has the courage to fly the white flag, to negotiate. And today you can negotiate with the help of international powers. The word 'negotiate' is a courageous word."
"Do not be ashamed to negotiate"
The Pope went on to say in the interview: "When you see that you are being defeated, that things are not going well, you must have the courage to negotiate. You are ashamed, but how many deaths will there be in the end? Negotiate in time, look for a country that will mediate. Today, for example in the war in Ukraine, there are many who want to mediate. Turkey has offered to do so. And others. Don't be ashamed to negotiate," the head of the church continued.
"Elsewhere in the interview, in which he speaks of a different conflict situation but refers to any war situation, the Pope further clarified that a negotiation is 'never a surrender'," the Vatican spokesperson explained.
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