The Ukrainian government responded with fury after Pope Francis encouraged the country to find “the courage to raise the white flag” and negotiate with Russia to end the war, forcing the Vatican to issue a clarification on his remarks.
“Our 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,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on social media.
“The strongest is the one who, in the battle between good and evil, stands on the side of good rather than attempting to put them on the same footing and call it ‘negotiations,’” he added.
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Francis drew the pointed criticism after a clip from an interview with a Swiss broadcaster aired on Saturday ahead of its full broadcast later this month. Asked what he thought about the need for talks, Francis replied, “I 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. That 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.”
He added that engaging in negotiation did not constitute surrender. “It is the courage not to carry a country to suicide.” He also suggested that he stood ready to help as a negotiator if asked. “I am here, period. I’ve said this,” he said.
Within hours, Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni issued a statement reiterating that the pontiff had not meant surrender when he invoked the “white flag,” the universal symbol of surrender–but a phrase his interviewer had used first. Instead, Bruni said, Francis had meant the flag as a stand-in for “a cessation of hostilities, a truce reached with the courage of negotiation.”
In his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky did not directly mention Francis or his comments, but emphasized that there were religious figures inside Ukraine aiding its cause. “They support us with prayer, with their discussion and with deeds. This is indeed what a church with the people is,” he said. “Not 2,500 km away, somewhere, virtual mediation between someone who wants to live and someone who wants to destroy you.”
Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the leader of the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church since 2011, reassured an audience of Ukrainians in New York City on Saturday that Ukraine was “wounded, not conquered,” according to UPI.
“Ukraine is exhausted, but it stands and perseveres! Believe me, no one even thinks of surrendering, even where hostilities are taking place today,” he said.
Other world leaders chimed in to castigate the pope for his words.
“How about, for balance, encouraging Putin to have the courage to withdraw his army from Ukraine,” Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski tweeted Sunday. “Peace would immediately ensue without the need for negotiations.”
“Russia started an illegal and unjustified war against Ukraine two years ago,” said Alexandra Valkenburg, the head of the EU delegation to the Holy See, adding that Russia could “end this war immediately by respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.”
Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs tweeted, “My Sunday morning take: One must not capitulate in [the] face of evil, one must fight it and defeat it, so that the evil raises the white flag and capitulates.”
During the weekly Angelus prayer on Sunday, Francis said that he was praying “for peace in the tormented Ukraine and in the Holy Land.
“Let the hostilities which cause immense suffering among the civilian population cease as soon as possible,” he said, according to the Associated Press.
