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Kremlin, NATO at odds over pope's call for Ukraine to show 'white flag' and start talks
MOSCOW/BRUSSELS,
March 12 (Reuters) - The Kremlin on Monday said a call by Pope Francis
for talks to end the Ukraine war was "quite understandable", but NATO's
boss said now was not the time to talk about "surrender".
Ukraine's
Foreign Ministry summoned the Vatican ambassador, known as the papal
nuncio, to express its "disappointment" with Francis' comments in an
interview recorded last month that Ukraine should have "the courage of
the white flag" to negotiate an end to the conflict.
The
ministry said the pope's comments "legalise the right of might and
encourage further disregard for the norms of international law".
In
an attempt to defuse the situation and clarify Francis' remarks, his
second in command at the Vatican said in a newspaper interview on
Tuesday that the first condition for any negotiations is that Russia should halt its aggression.
As
the West grapples with how to support Ukraine and the prospect of a
sharp change in U.S. policy if Donald Trump wins November's presidential
election, Putin has essentially offered to freeze the battlefield along
its current front lines, a premise Ukraine rejects.
"It is quite understandable that he (the pope) spoke in favour of negotiations," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
He said President Vladimir Putin had repeatedly said Russia was open to peace talks.
"Unfortunately,
both the statements of the pope and the repeated statements of other
parties, including ours, have recently received absolutely harsh
refusals," Peskov said.
Russia
says it sent its troops into Ukraine in February 2022 in a "special
military operation" to ensure its own security. Kyiv and the West decry
it as a colonial-style war of conquest.
Moscow's
offers to negotiate have invariably been predicated on Kyiv giving up
the territory that Moscow has seized and declared part of Russia - more
than a sixth of Ukraine.
THE KREMLIN: A WESTERN MISCONCEPTION
Peskov
said Western hopes of inflicting a "strategic defeat" on Russia were
"the deepest misconception", adding: "The course of events, primarily on
the battlefield, is the clearest evidence of this."
But
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said negotiations that would
preserve Ukraine as a sovereign and independent nation would only come
when Putin realised that he would not win on the battlefield.
"If
we want a negotiated, peaceful, lasting solution, the way to get there
is to provide military support to Ukraine," he told Reuters at NATO
headquarters in Brussels.
Asked
if this meant now was not the time to talk about a white flag, he said:
"It's not the time to talk about surrender by the Ukrainians. That will
be a tragedy for the Ukrainians."
He
added: "It will also be dangerous for all of us. Because then the
lesson learned in Moscow is that when they use military force, when they
kill thousands of people, when they invade another country, they get
what they want."
Ukraine's
Foreign Ministry said the nuncio, Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, had
been told the pope "would be expected to send signals to the world
community about the need to immediately join forces to ensure the
victory of good over evil."
Ukraine
wanted peace, it said, but one that was fair and based on U.N.
principles and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's peace plan.
Zelenskiy said on Sunday the pontiff was engaging in "virtual mediation" and his foreign minister said Kyiv would never capitulate.
Zelenskiy,
who signed a decree in 2022 ruling out talks with Putin, said last week
Russia will not be invited to a peace summit due to be held in
Switzerland.
Zelenskiy's
peace plan calls for a withdrawal of Russian troops, a return to
Ukraine's 1991 borders, and due process to hold Russia accountable for
its actions. Russia says it cannot hold any talks under such a premise.
Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Andrew Osborn, Kevin Liffey, Ron Popeski and Lincoln Feast.