Did the pope encourage Ukraine to surrender? Francis rankles many with 'white flag' comment
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Pope Francis is drawing the ire of Ukraine and some of its supporters with recently revealed comments that appear to suggest Kyiv should surrender in its two-year war with Russia as the Vatican tries to clarify his remarks.
Francis has frequently condemned Moscow's invasion and its brutality in what he has called a "senseless war,'' but in a February interview with Swiss broadcaster RSI − parts of which were released Saturday − the pontiff encouraged Ukraine to be open to peace talks mediated by international powers.
"I think that the strongest one is the one who looks at the situation, thinks about the people and has the courage of the white flag, and negotiates," Francis said in an English transcript provided to Reuters of remarks he made in Italian. "The word negotiate is a courageous word. When you see that you are defeated, that things are not going well, you have to have the courage to negotiate. ... There's no shame in negotiating."
Grappling with a loss of firepower as U.S. military aid stalls in Congress, Ukraine has endured costly battlefield defeats in recent weeks, most notably in the eastern city of Avdiivka. Russia controls about 20% of Ukraine's pre-war territory, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has consistently said his country is determined to gain it back.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said the pope wasn't pushing Ukraine to capitulate but rather to seek a truce "with the courage of negotiations.” He also pointed out Francis was responding to a question that included the term "white flag'' when he made the controversial statement.
Nonetheless, his words drew swift backlash. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Sunday in a post on the X platform that the strong ones support those fighting for a just cause against evildoers "rather than attempting to put them on the same footing and call it 'negotiations.'''
"Our flag is a yellow and blue one,'' Kuleba said. "This is the flag by which we live, die, and prevail. We shall never raise any other flags.''
Both Kuleba and Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski made allusions to Europe's appeasement efforts toward Adolf Hitler before World War II, which the Nazi leader exploited to expand his empire.
Said Sikorski in an X post: “How about, for balance, encouraging Putin to have the courage to withdraw his army from Ukraine? Peace would immediately ensue without the need for negotiations.”
Of course, that's unlikely to happen. With the assumption the war will eventually end in a negotiated settlement, the U.S. and its allies have tried to put Ukraine in the best possible bargaining position against Russia's implacable president, Vladimir Putin, and his much larger army.
But the failure of the Ukrainian counteroffensive last year and the recent setbacks, combined with the uncertainty over whether the U.S. will again provide desperately needed munitions, might change the calculus of what a peace accord looks like.
Francis' comments in the interview, which Reuters said would run March 20, seemed to reflect that harsh reality.
Contributing: The Associated Press
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Pope Francis rankles Ukraine by touting 'courage of the white flag'
