Pope Francis is unequivocally on side of Ukraine, - Ambassador Yurash
Ambassador of Ukraine to the Vatican Andriy Yurash is sure that the position of Pope Francis regarding the Russian-Ukrainian war is unambiguous - he is on the side of Ukraine.
Yurash said this in an interview with Ukrinform, Censor.NET reports.
"The Pope is unequivocally on the side of Ukraine, and even his models and ways of self-expression, which are not fully understood by the Ukrainian community, are dictated by his love for Ukraine and the desire to help. We can debate whether these models suit us, but the fact that his motivation is positive, there can be no doubt," Yurash said.
He reminded that the Pope is not only the head of the Catholic Church, but also the head of the Vatican State, which Ukraine previously considered as a possible platform for negotiations with Russia.
And the Vatican wants to preserve opportunities for communication to become such a platform if necessary.
"Somewhere at the intersection of such intentions, the Pope's position is modeled," Yuras said.
He reminded that last year, because of the war, the Pope canceled the already scheduled meeting with the Russian party archbishop Kirill (Gundyaev). According to Yuras, this was a very serious gesture.
"The Pope is the head of the church, for him a meeting with, relatively speaking, an equal spiritual representative from Russia was very important. The first meeting between Patriarch Kirill and the Pope was in Havana in 2016. And there was a desire from the Russian side to develop these relations. The Pope demolished this site , he said that there is no reason for the meeting," the ambassador said.
