ROME – Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Pope Francis has launched the idea that he wants to travel to Kyiv to try to mediate a ceasefire. But now he says he would prefer to go to Moscow to try to make sense of Vladimir Putin, whom he has not condemned externally in the nearly three-month war and has done so only slightly in a long interview with an Italian newspaper. . “I feel that before I go to Kyiv, I have to go to Moscow,” he told Corriere Della Sera in an interview Tuesday. But the meeting would not be exactly to condemn Putin, based on what he told the newspaper. He said the real “scandal” of Putin’s war was “NATO barking at Russia’s door”, which he said made the Kremlin “react badly and unleash the conflict”.
It doesn’t matter that the 85-year-old pontiff can’t walk after a torn ligament in his knee, which he says will have surgery soon, or that Putin doesn’t even answer his calls. Francis reiterated his comments to the general public in other interviews that the war was nothing more than a gigantic opportunity for an “arms trade” and was still ongoing due to the constant sending of weapons to Ukraine. He spoke twice on the phone with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, but mostly to urge him not to retaliate. He also went to the Russian embassy in the Holy See days after the invasion to “register his concerns” about what was happening.
“I don’t know how to answer – I am too far away – the question of whether it is right to supply Ukrainians,” he told the newspaper. “It is clear that weapons are being tested there. Now the Russians know that the tanks are of little use and are thinking of other things. That is why wars are being fought: to test the weapons we have produced. Few people are fighting this trade, but more needs to be done. “
Whether Italian journalists did not ask – or he did not answer – there is no mention of what will happen if Ukrainians do not respond fiercely, whether it will mean complete annexation of the whole country, millions of deaths or the empowerment of Putin, who is already insatiably eager for power.
Francis deviated from conspiracy theory, blaming the international community for starting the war. “You can’t think that one free country can wage war against another free country,” he said. “In Ukraine, it seems that others have created the conflict. I am a pessimist, but we must do everything we can to stop the war. The pope then said that during a state visit to Rome, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had been told that “the Russians have a plan that everything will end on May 9”, without giving any further explanation. May 9 is the day Russia celebrates its liberation and the end of World War II.
The only person Francis will not meet is Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, whom the pope fears will become “Putin’s altar.” Francis said he spoke to him on the phone for 40 minutes on March 15. “And I told him, ‘I can’t understand that at all,'” he said. “Brother, we are not state clergy; we cannot use the language of politics, but that of Jesus. We are pastors of the same holy people of God. ”
He said 40 days ago he had asked his secretary of state to begin the process of organizing a visit to Moscow instead of Ukraine, but Putin did not respond. “I will not go to Kyiv for now,” he said. “I do not feel like leaving. I have to go to Moscow first. I have to meet with Putin first. But I am also a priest, what can I do? I do what I can. Only if Putin opens the door. “
News of a potential trip to Moscow has put the pontiff’s Vatican press on high alert, with many wondering if they will be arrested if they report to discuss the war if they are in Russia.
But even the pontiff admits that the meeting in Moscow is far away. “I am afraid that Putin cannot and does not want to have this meeting at this time,” he said. “But how can you not stop so much brutality?”
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