(Vatican City) In a televised interview broadcast in Switzerland on Saturday, Pope Francis called for “the courage to raise the white flag and negotiate” to end the war in Ukraine “before things get worse.”
“I believe that the strongest are those who look at the situation, think about the people, and have the courage to raise the white flag and negotiate,” he said in an interview with RTS public television in early February, when asked about the debate in Ukraine. On the way forward.
“Negotiate is a brave word. When you see that you are defeated, things are not working, have the courage to negotiate,” he added in an apparent note to Kiev.
The head of the Catholic Church recalled that “many” actors were “ready to play the role of mediators”, “for example Turkey”.
On Friday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was ready to host a Russia-Ukraine peace summit by receiving his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in Istanbul.
In the first weeks of the war, Turkey held peace talks between Moscow and Kiev, which failed.
More than two years after the start of the Russian invasion, he hopes to be able to restart them, at a time when the Kremlin maintains a numerical advantage over its adversary and support from Kiev's Western allies is vaporized.
“Don't be shy to negotiate before things get worse,” the Pope urged.
Asked about the war between Israel and Hamas, he assigned responsibility to both sides.
“War is fought by two, not by one. These two irresponsible people are waging war,'' he said.
