Pope Francis for the first time implicitly criticises Putin over Ukraine
Pope Francis came the closest he has yet to implicitly criticising President Vladimir Putin over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying on Saturday a “potentate” was fomenting conflicts for nationalist interests.
“From the east of Europe, from the land of the sunrise, the dark shadows of war have now spread. We had thought that invasions of other countries, savage street fighting and atomic threats were grim memories of a distant past,” the pope said in an address to Maltese officials after arriving on the Mediterranean island nation for a two-day visit.
“However, the icy winds of war, which bring only death, destruction and hatred in their wake, have swept down powerfully upon the lives of many people and affected us all,” he said.
“Once again, some potentate, sadly caught up in anachronistic claims of nationalist interests, is provoking and fomenting conflicts, whereas ordinary people sense the need to build a future that, will either shared, or not be at all,” he said.
The pope has already strongly condemned what he has called an “unjustified aggression” and denounced “atrocities” in the war.
But he has only referred to Russia directly in prayers, such as during a special global event for peace on March 25.
“Now in the night of the war that is fallen upon humanity, let us not allow the dream of peace to fade!” he said yesterday.
