{"id":41794,"date":"2024-03-10T18:11:59","date_gmt":"2024-03-10T18:11:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=41794"},"modified":"2024-03-10T18:12:01","modified_gmt":"2024-03-10T18:12:01","slug":"pope-provokes-outrage-by-saying-ukraine-should-raise-white-flag-and-end-war-with-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2024\/03\/10\/pope-provokes-outrage-by-saying-ukraine-should-raise-white-flag-and-end-war-with-russia\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope provokes outrage by saying Ukraine should \u2018raise white flag\u2019 and end war with Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Ukrainian government has responded angrily and vowed never to surrender after\u00a0Pope Francissaid the country should have \u201cthe courage to raise the white flag\u201d and negotiate an end to the war with Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur flag is a yellow and blue one. This is the flag by which we live, die, and prevail. We shall never raise any other flags,\u201d Ukraine\u2019s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said on social media on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Politicians and commentators in\u00a0Europe\u00a0expressed outrage after the pontiff gave an interview in which he appeared to stay silent on Russia\u2019s crimes as aggressor in the invasion and placed the onus on Ukraine to make peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kuleba called on Francis to stand \u201con the side of good\u201d and not put\u00a0Russia\u00a0and Ukraine \u201con the same footing and call it \u2018negotiations\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also appeared to refer to collaboration between some of the Catholic church and Nazi forces during the second world war: \u201cAt the same time, when it comes to the white flag, we know this Vatican strategy from the first half of the 20th century. I urge to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past and to support Ukraine and its people in their just struggle for their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Anton Gerashchenko, a blogger and former adviser to Ukraine\u2019s internal affairs ministry,\u00a0wrote on X: \u201cIt does seem strange that the pope doesn\u2019t urge to defend Ukraine, doesn\u2019t condemn Russia as an aggressor who killed tens of thousands of people, doesn\u2019t urge Putin to stop, but calls on Ukraine to raise the white flag instead. Do all his Cardinals share this position?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Polish foreign minister, Rados\u0142aw Sikorski, wrote on X: \u201cHow about, for balance, encouraging Putin to have the courage to withdraw his army from Ukraine? Peace would immediately ensue without the need for negotiations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexandra Valkenburg, the head of the EU delegation to the Holy See, said on X: \u201cRussia started an illegal and unjustified war against Ukraine two years ago\u201d, adding that Russia \u201ccan end this war immediately by respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine\u201d. She said the EU supported Ukraine and its peace plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an interview broadcast on Saturday by Swiss television, but which the Vatican said was conducted in February, the pontiff urged parties in the Ukraine war to \u201chave the courage to negotiate\u201d, and do so \u201cbefore things get worse\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 87-year-old pope was asked by the public broadcaster RTS about a debate within Ukraine on whether to surrender to Russia\u2019s invasion. \u201cI believe that the strongest are those who see the situation, think about the people, and have the courage to raise the white flag and negotiate,\u201d he said. \u201cThat word negotiate is a brave word. When you see that you are defeated, that things are not working out, to have the courage to negotiate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ukrainians, Francis said, should not be afraid to negotiate a peace deal before the situation deteriorates further. \u201cToday, for example with the war in Ukraine, there are many who want to act as mediators. Turkey, for example. Don\u2019t be ashamed to negotiate before things get worse.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking about conflict in general, including the Israel-Gaza war, Francis said: \u201cNegotiations are never a surrender. It is the courage not to carry a country to suicide.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Vatican\u2019s director of communications, Matteo Bruni, issued a statement seeking to clarify the pope\u2019s words. He said Francis had used the term white flag \u201cto indicate a cessation of hostilities, a truce reached with the courage of negotiation\u201d. He repeated the pontiff\u2019s call for a \u201cdiplomatic solution in search of a just and lasting peace\u201d in what Francis called the \u201cmartyred\u201d Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Ukrainian government has responded angrily and vowed never to surrender after\u00a0Pope Francissaid the country should have \u201cthe courage to raise the white flag\u201d and negotiate an end to the war with Russia. \u201cOur flag is a yellow and blue one. This is the flag by which we live, die, and prevail. We shall never […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":23428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[461,12],"tags":[8217,4321,6609,6537,10767,11399,10505,12246,7516,159,6621,9127,5345,2629,2264,10321,11493,5252,3095,9515,3773,8000,11973,8353,5396,11698,7296,1062,71,3457,5349,7391,5377,9713,8429,2570,5180,5521,5555,8107,5251,6571,36,594,10353],"class_list":["post-41794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-world-news","tag-army","tag-broadcaster","tag-catholic","tag-church","tag-conflict","tag-debate","tag-die","tag-diplomatic","tag-dmytro-kuleba","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-february","tag-foreign-minister","tag-gaza","tag-government","tag-illegal","tag-interview","tag-invasion","tag-israel","tag-killed","tag-nazi","tag-negotiations","tag-one","tag-outrage","tag-peace","tag-politicians","tag-pope","tag-pope-francis","tag-putin","tag-russia","tag-social-media","tag-suicide","tag-surrender","tag-swiss","tag-truce","tag-turkey","tag-ukraine","tag-ukraine-war","tag-ukrainian","tag-vatican","tag-war","tag-white","tag-world","tag-who","tag-x"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41794"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41796,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41794\/revisions\/41796"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}