Pope Francis called on Russia and Ukraine to “negotiate” in an interview with Swiss channel RTS, hailing those who “have the courage to raise the white flag.”On Sunday evening, Volodymyr Zelensky announced the upcoming visit of Emmanuel Macron to Ukraine.Follow the latest information.
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MACRON’S VISIT TO UKRAINE “IN THE COMING WEEKS”
Emmanuel Macron spoke by telephone with Volodymyr Zelensky this Sunday, the Elysée confirms to LCI. They “discussed the situation on the ground as well as the latest international developments”.
Emmanuel Macron “reaffirmed his desire to continue efforts to quickly set up the coalition on deep strikes”, specifies the same source.
A visit by Emmanuel Macron to Ukraine “should take place in the coming weeks”, adds the Elysée.
RESPONSE TO THE POPE
“This is where the Church should be: with the people. And not 2,500 kilometers away, with virtual mediation between someone who wants to live and someone who wants to destroy you,” declared Volodymyr Zelensky in his daily video messageresponding without quoting him to the Pope and his words inciting to “raise the white flag”.
EMMANUEL MACRON SOON IN UKRAINE?
Could Emmanuel Macron soon go to Ukraine? In a message posted on X, Volodymyr Zelensky mentions a meeting which could take place “soon”.
During a “long” telephone conversation, the Ukrainian president also thanked the French head of state for his recent statements “in support of Ukraine”.
THREE DRONES SHOT DOWN IN RUSSIA
The Russian army claims to have shot down three Ukrainian drones this Sunday afternoon in northwest Russia. In a press release, the Russian Ministry of Defense wrote that it destroyed a drone around 6 p.m. (4 p.m. French time) above the Leningrad region, where Saint Petersburg is located, more than 800km from Ukraine.
REACTIONS TO THE POPE’S REACTIONS
“If we want to end the war, we must do everything to kill the Dragon!” wrote about X the ambassador of kyiv to the Vatican Andriï Iourach, in reaction to the Pope’s remarks on “the courage to raise the white flag”. The ambassador made a comparison to World War II, insinuating that negotiating with Russia today would have been like negotiating with Hitler then.
UKRAINE WILL “NEVER” HOIST THE WHITE FLAG
kyiv vowed this Sunday to never surrender to Russia, in reaction to Pope Francis’ appeal to the belligerents in the conflict in Ukraine to have “the courage to raise the white flag and negotiate.” “Our flag is yellow and blue. This is the flag for which we live, we die and triumph. We will never raise other flags,” declared the head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmytro Kuleba, in a message on the social network.
DEADLY RUSSIAN STRIKES
Russian strikes left at least 3 dead and 12 injured in eastern Ukraine, a local official announced this Sunday. “During the night, the Russians attacked Dobropillia (Editor’s note: a town about 45km from the front) with Shahed (drones); In the morning, rescuers found the bodies of two people under the rubble of a house., indicated the Ukrainian head of the Donetsk region, Vadym Filashkin. According to this source, the Russian army also bombarded with artillery in the morning the town of Chassiv Yar, located near the front in the Donetsk region, killing a 66-year-old man.
SHAHED DRONES
The Ukrainian Air Force said on Sunday that it had shot down 35 Iranian-made Shahed drones, out of a total of 39 launched by Russia overnight. “Thirty-five Shaheds were shot down” over 10 regions in central and southern Ukraine, including in the Kiev region, she said on social media.
BOMBINGS
A woman was killed this Sunday in a Ukrainian bombing targeting a Russian border village, a Russian governor announced. “Today the village of Kulbaki was bombed from Ukraine”indicated the Russian governor of the Kursk region, Roman Starovoyt. “A woman was killed”he clarified.
In addition, three Russian S-300 missiles struck the town of Myrnograd, in eastern Ukraine, wounding nine people, including a teenager, according to the Ukrainian head of the Donetsk region, Vadym Filashkin. Nine apartment buildings were damaged, he said.
THE VATICAN’S PRECISION AFTER THE POPE’S INTERVIEW
In an interview with Swiss public television RTS, broadcast on Saturday, Pope Francis called on Russia and Ukraine to “negotiate”. Shortly after the broadcast of this interview, the director of the Vatican press office wanted to clarify from the Italian press agency ANSA that the pope was not calling on Ukraine to capitulate.
“The Pope uses the term ‘white flag’ and responds by using the image proposed by the interviewer, to indicate thereby the cessation of hostilities, the truce concluded with the courage of negotiation”, says Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office. He adds : “Elsewhere in the interview, speaking of another conflict situation, but referring to any war situation, the pope clearly stated: ‘Negotiation is never capitulation.’”
10 DAYS IN PRISON FOR RENAMING HIS WIFI NETWORK
A Moscow court sentenced to 10 days in prison a student who renamed his wifi network “Slava Ukraine”, the rallying cry of kyiv’s forces, the Russian news agency Ria-Novosti reported on Saturday.
By changing the pre-installed name of his wifi router to “Slava Ukraine!”, this student from Moscow State University “propagandas the slogan of Ukrainian nationalists”, assured the court in its decision cited by Ria -News.
DRONES
Russia claimed on Saturday to have destroyed 47 Ukrainian drones overnight, mainly in the Rostov-on-Don region, bordering Ukraine, an attack which could have targeted, among other things, an aviation factory.
“Air defense systems intercepted and destroyed one drone on the territory of the Belgorod region, two in the Kursk region, three in the Volgograd region and 41 in the Rostov region,” the Russian army announced.
Pope Francis has called for “have the courage to raise a white flag and negotiate” to end the war in Ukraine “before things get worse”in an interview on Swiss television broadcast on Saturday.
“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”he said in an interview with public television RTS in early February, when asked about a debate in Ukraine about the way forward. “Negotiating is a courageous word. When you see that you are defeated, that things are not working out, have the courage to negotiate”he added, in an apparent allusion to kyiv.
The head of the Catholic Church recalled that there were “many” actors “ready to play the role of mediators”, “for example Turkey”. On Friday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was ready to host a Russia-Ukraine peace summit if necessary by receiving his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in Istanbul.
In the first weeks of the war, Turkey hosted peace talks between Moscow and kyiv, which failed. She hopes to be able to relaunch them, more than two years after the start of the Russian invasion, at a time when the Kremlin maintains the numerical advantage over its adversary and the support of kyiv’s Western allies is running out of steam.
“Don’t be ashamed to negotiate before things get worse”underlined the Pope.