VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis revealed on Tuesday that he has requested for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow about the war in Ukraine, but has received no response.
The 85-year-old told Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera that he sent a message to Putin about 20 days into the conflict, saying “I’m ready to go to Moscow”.
“We have not yet received a response and we are still insisting on it, although I am afraid that Putin cannot and does not want to have this meeting at this time,” he said.
Pope Francis has repeatedly called for peace in Ukraine and denounced a “cruel and senseless war” without ever naming Putin or Moscow.
The head of the Roman Catholic Church also said he would not be visiting Ukraine anytime soon.
“I’m not going to Kyiv at the moment. I think I shouldn’t go there. I have to go to Moscow first, I have to meet Putin first,” he said.
Francis also said Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, a close ally of Putin, “cannot become Putin’s altar boy.”
Dialogue with the Orthodox Church, which separated from the Catholic Church in 1054, is a declared priority of Francis’ pontificate.
But since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, the pope’s calls for peace stand in contrast to Kirill’s actions.
Kirill defended Putin’s “military operation” in Ukraine and the fight against Russia’s “external and internal enemies”.
- Editor/ additional report by AFP
