Pope Francis is ready to come to Moscow and speak with Vladimir Putin to beg him to stop the war in Ukraine, and has already tried three times to arrange a meeting with the Russian president. But, as the pontiff said in an interview with the Corriere della Sera newspaper on Tuesday, May 3, he has not received a response to any of his appeals to Putin since March.
“We have not received an answer, but we will continue our attempts, although I am afraid that Putin at the moment does not want and cannot take part in such a meeting,” he said. Pope Francis.
Patriarch Kirill told the Pope about the Russian position
The pontiff stressed that he had talked with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky back in early days of the war, while on the Russian side, only the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, spoke with the Pope, who, according to Francis, during a 40-minute video call on Zoom, “read for 20 minutes from a sheet of justification for the war.” “I listened to him and said: “My brother, we are not servants of the state and should not speak the language of politics, but the language of Jesus. A patriarch cannot make himself an altar boy to Putin.”
Shortly thereafter, the Vatican canceled a June 14 meeting between the two church leaders. In addition, the priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate urged to deprive Patriarch Kirill his dignity.
Francis also noted that at the moment he cannot come to Ukraine – some time ago, the head of the Vatican was invited to Kyiv by Vladimir Zelensky and the mayor of the city Vladimir Klitschko. According to the Pope, before this trip, he must meet with Putin.
The pontiff compared Russia’s war against Ukraine with the 1994 massacres of Tutsi people in Rwanda, which the world community recognized as genocide.
Since the beginning of the war, the head of the Catholic Church has repeatedly spoken out about the need to stop hostilities, including in appeals in Russian. And during the Easter Vigil, Francis said a prayer in Ukrainianafter during a ceremony in Rome, the Easter cross was carried together in the presence of the pope natives of Ukraine and Russia.
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War in Ukraine – 02.05.2022
Evacuation of Azovstal employees from Mariupol
Residents of Mariupol who arrived in the village of Bezymennoye in the Donbass. In the photo chronicle of the war in Ukraine dated May 1 – the evacuation of the civilian population from the Azovstal plant, the days of commemoration of the dead in Lviv, Irpin and other cities, support for Ukraine by participants in May Day protests around the world and other pictures. ATTENTION! Some of the photographs contain scenes of gore, violence and death.
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War in Ukraine – 02.05.2022
Arrival of refugees at a temporary accommodation center in Donbass
UN mission staff escort civilians from Mariupol who arrived at the Bezymennoe temporary accommodation center in the Donetsk region. This village is under the control of the so-called “DPR”. The people who were taken there later spoke about the difficult conditions, interrogations, checking phones and taking fingerprints.
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War in Ukraine – 02.05.2022
Under the control of the “DPR”
Russian servicemen and representatives of the pro-Russian separatists of Donbass near the temporary accommodation center for refugees Bezymennoe in the Donetsk region. According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, on April 30 and May 1, about 80 residents of Mariupol were taken there.
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War in Ukraine – 02.05.2022
Refugees from Mariupol to Zaporozhye
About a hundred civilians of Mariupol were also evacuated from the territory of “Azovstal” in Zaporozhye. The evacuation process was attended by employees of the Red Cross and UN missions.
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War in Ukraine – 02.05.2022
Resumption of shelling “Azovstal”
As the assistant to the mayor of Mariupol Petr Andryushchenko said on Ukrainian television, the Russian military resumed shelling the Azovstal plant on May 1, as soon as the buses with the evacuated residents of the city left its territory.
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War in Ukraine – 02.05.2022
Days of Remembrance of the Dead
From May 1 to May 3, the so-called “Grobki” are held in Ukraine. These are the days of commemoration of the dead, on which it is customary to visit the graves of loved ones. In the photo: Vera Velakanova and Lyudmila Vondarenko, residents of Zaporozhye, at the Kapustyan cemetery.
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War in Ukraine – 02.05.2022
On the grave of his father in Irpen
Meanwhile, throughout Ukraine, they continue to bury the defenders of the cities that were subjected to Russian attack, and civilians who became victims of the war. In this picture, ten-year-old Saveliy is at the grave of his father Igor, who died defending Irpin.
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War in Ukraine – 02.05.2022
Fresh graves in Irpin
Fresh flowers and photos of the fallen defenders of Irpen on numerous fresh graves of the city cemetery.
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War in Ukraine – 02.05.2022
At the Lychakiv cemetery in Lviv
This woman, like many other Ukrainian women and Ukrainians, came to the Lychakiv cemetery in Lviv to visit the graves of relatives who died after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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War in Ukraine – 02.05.2022
In memory of the fallen defenders of Irpin
Soldiers of the territorial defense of Irpen lay flowers at the memorial in memory of the fallen comrades at the city cemetery.
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War in Ukraine – 02.05.2022
In the territories controlled by the Russian Federation
The city of Melitopol, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, has been completely under the control of the Russian military since mid-March. In this photo, a teenager rides a bicycle past a Russian soldier on duty on the street.
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War in Ukraine – 02.05.2022
At the Melitopol market
The photos, distributed by the Russian state news agency TASS, are intended to show that peaceful life is resuming in occupied Melitopol. Here: women buy fruit at the central market. From May 1, by order of the occupying authorities, the ruble should be accepted here as a means of payment on a par with the hryvnia.
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War in Ukraine – 02.05.2022
Traces of destruction as a result of the fighting near Lugansk
An elderly man pushes a bicycle in the city of Rubizhne, located in the Severodonetsk district of the Luhansk region of Ukraine. Behind him are destroyed houses.
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War in Ukraine – 02.05.2022
Spring in Kyiv
And in this photo – a young resident of the Ukrainian capital, throwing a national flag over her shoulders, enjoys a sunny day. Quite recently, on April 29, the Russian side launched a rocket attack on Kyiv at a time when UN Secretary General António Guterres was visiting the city.
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War in Ukraine – 02.05.2022
Despite the war
Despite the presence of military personnel on the streets of the city and other signs of wartime – such as barricades made of sandbags – many residents of the Ukrainian capital are gradually returning to their daily activities.
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War in Ukraine – 02.05.2022
May Day under the sign of support for Ukraine
In many countries of the world, May Day actions this year were held under the sign of support for Ukraine. The musician from the German band Nümmes wore a jacket in the colors of the Ukrainian flag to perform in Berlin.
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War in Ukraine – 02.05.2022
No war!
An inflatable tank, the muzzle of which is tied in a knot: in such an original way, representatives of the Left Party in the city of Zeitz in the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt expressed their demand for an immediate cessation of hostilities in Ukraine.
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War in Ukraine – 02.05.2022
Rome: protest against genocide
This participant of the demonstration in support of Ukraine, which took place on the Republic Square in Rome, demands to stop the genocide.
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War in Ukraine – 02.05.2022
Barcelona: for the humanitarian corridor from Mariupol
Citizens of Ukraine living in Barcelona and their like-minded people took to the streets of the city with a call to ensure the further operation of the humanitarian corridor for the evacuation of civilians from Mariupol besieged by Russian troops.
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War in Ukraine – 02.05.2022
Colombians against the war in Ukraine
In the capital of Colombia, Bogota, participants of the May Day demonstration also came out in support of Ukraine. One of their banners reads in Spanish: “Russians, get out of Ukraine.”
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War in Ukraine – 02.05.2022
Hopeful for a return to civilian life
And this girl took the Ukrainian flag to the streets of Czech Brno and summed up her eyes, using shadows of blue and yellow. Like many others, she hopes for a speedy return of Ukraine to peaceful life.
Author: Alexandra Ivanova
