Leaders in Ukraine vehemently rejected Pope Francis’s suggestion of negotiations with Russia to bring an end to the war — his use of the words “white flag” drawing particular scorn — reiterating that the country would never surrender.
President Volodymyr Zelensky in his nightly address Sunday responded to the pope without naming him.
Praising Ukrainian chaplains on the front line, Zelensky said: “This is what the church is — it is together with people, not two and a half thousand kilometers away somewhere, virtually mediating between someone who wants to live and someone who wants to destroy you.”
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged the Vatican to support the Ukrainian people “in their just struggle for their lives,” writing: “Our flag is blue and yellow. Under it, we live, die, and triumph. We will not raise any other flags.” He thanked Francis for his prayers for peace and urged him to visit Ukraine.
The pope’s remarks were made in an interview with Swiss broadcaster Radio Télévision Suisse recorded in February, part of which was released Saturday. The full interview is set to air March 20.
According to a transcript translated and shared by the Vatican news agency, interviewer Lorenzo Buccella asked Francis: “In Ukraine, some call for the courage of surrender, of the white flag. But others say that this would legitimize the stronger party. What do you think?”
Francis responded by saying that, in his opinion, the stronger side is the one “who has the courage of the white flag, to negotiate.”
The controversy prompted a clarification from the Vatican.
“The Pope uses the term white flag, and responds by picking up the image proposed by the interviewer, to indicate a cessation of hostilities, a truce reached with the courage of negotiation,” spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a statement, adding that the Pope stated that negotiations are never a “surrender.”
Though he has often condemned the war in Ukraine, Francis has provoked debate within the church over whether his messaging on the war has been too cautious and too focused on maintaining ties with the Russian Orthodox Church. His supporters argue that maintaining neutrality has long been at the center of Holy See diplomacy.
In May 2023, after his first private meeting with Francis after the outbreak of war, Zelensky said any peace formula to end the war “must be Ukrainian,” and any role of the Vatican must be in service to Ukraine’s peace formula.
Ukrainian church leaders and Ukraine’s allies, too, pushed back against the pope’s latest remarks.
Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of Ukraine’s Greek Catholic Church, told a prayer gathering in New York that no one in Ukraine “even thinks of surrendering,” the same day as part of the interview was released. A later statement by church leaders said they would not “dwell” on the pope’s remarks and instead emphasize that Ukraine was a victim of Russia’s aggression.
“How about, for balance, encouraging Putin to have the courage to withdraw his army from Ukraine?” Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski wrote on X. “Peace would immediately ensue without the need for negotiations.”
