© KEYSTONE/AP/MATT DUNHAM
Pope Francis expressed his “deep sorrow for the tragic events” in Ukraine during a telephone interview on Saturday with President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian embassy to the Holy See announced.
“Today Pope Francis had a telephone conversation with President Volodymyr Zelensky. The Holy Father expressed his deepest sorrow for the tragic events unfolding in our country,” the embassy said in its tweet.
The Ukrainian president for his part posted on his Twitter account a message in which he “thanked the pope for praying for peace in Ukraine and a ceasefire. The Ukrainian people feel the spiritual support of His Holiness”.
Already on Friday, the pope had spoken about the Russian invasion in Ukraine: “Any war is a shameful capitulation”, he had denounced in a tweet translated into several languages including Russian, which is extremely rare.
“Any war leaves the world worse than it found it. War is always a failure of politics and of humanity, a shameful surrender, a rout before the forces of evil,” wrote the pope, taking up a passage from his encyclical on peace “Fratelli tutti” (All brothers) published in 2020.
Francis also went to the Russian Embassy to the Holy See on Friday morning to express “his concern” on the second day of the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops. A gesture also exceptional for the Argentine pontiff, who never goes to foreign representations but receives diplomats accredited to the Vatican at the Apostolic Palace.