The Russian government said the pope's comments were “very understandable,” but NATO said “now is not the time to talk about surrender.”
The Kremlin said Pope Francis' call for talks to end the war in Ukraine was “very understandable”, but the NATO secretary general said now was not the time to talk about “surrender”.
In an interview recorded last month, Pope Francis said Ukraine should have the “courage of a white flag” in negotiations to end the war, which is now in its third year.
As Russia gains the upper hand on the battlefield, Western countries are grappling with how to support Ukraine and the potential for dramatic shifts in U.S. policy if Donald Trump wins November's presidential election.
“I can totally understand why he feels that way.” [the pope] We have indicated that we are in favor of negotiations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.
He said Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said his country is open to peace talks.
“Unfortunately, both the Pope's statement and the repeated statements of other political parties, including ours, have recently been met with quite harsh rejection,” he said.
Russia's offers to negotiate have always been predicated on Kiev giving up territory representing more than one-sixth of Ukraine that Russia has occupied and declared part of Russia.
Peskov said that Western hopes of inflicting a “strategic defeat” on Russia were “the deepest misunderstanding”, adding that “the course of events, mainly on the battlefield, is the clearest evidence of this” .
Stoltenberg: 'This is not the time to talk about surrender'
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said negotiations to keep Ukraine as a sovereign and independent state could only happen if President Putin realized he could not win on the battlefield.
“If we want a peaceful and durable negotiated solution, the way to get there is to provide military support to Ukraine,” he told Reuters at NATO headquarters in Brussels. .
Asked if this meant now was not the time to talk about white flags, he said: “This is not the time to talk about surrender by Ukrainians. It would be a tragedy for Ukrainians.”
“It's dangerous for all of us, too, because the lesson we learned in Moscow is that if they use military force, kill thousands of people, invade other countries, they get what they want. Because it means you can do it,” he said.
On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy dismissed Pope Francis' call for dialogue with Russia as “de facto mediation” from a distance.
In his nightly video address, Zelensky did not directly mention Francis or his remarks, but said the pope's ideas had nothing to do with efforts by Ukrainian religious figures to help Ukraine.
“They support us with prayer, discussion and action. This is truly a church with people,” Zelenskiy said.
“It’s not 2,500km.” [1,550 miles] Virtual mediation between those who want to live and those who want to destroy you, at a distance. ”
President Zelenskiy, who signed a decree barring him from meeting with President Putin in 2022, said last week that Russia would not be invited to the upcoming peace summit in Switzerland.
