Ukrainian politicians and church leaders expressed dismay at Pope Francis’ call for their country to show “the courage of the white flag” and seek peace with Russia.
“We wish to emphasise once again the position of victims of the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” said a statement from the five-member permanent synod of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) on Sunday.
“Ukrainians are wounded but indomitable, tired but resilient – and they cannot stop defending themselves, because capitulation would mean their death,” they said.
“Any Russian occupation of Ukrainian territory leads to destruction of the Greek Catholic Church and any independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and the suppression of all religions, institutions and cultural manifestations that do not support Russian domination.”
The statement was published as worsening ammunition shortages stymied Ukrainian forces efforts to hold back Russian advances. In an extract from an interview with the Swiss network RTS published last Saturday, the Pope urged Ukrainians to accept mediation offers from Turkey and other countries and not to be “ashamed to negotiate before things get worse”.
“I believe the stronger one is the one who sees the situation, thinks of the people and has the courage of the white flag,” the Pope said.
“Today, negotiations are possible with the help of international powers, and the word negotiate is a courageous word. When you see you are defeated, that things are not going well, it is necessary to have the courage to negotiate.”
The UGCC synod said most Russians agreed with President Vladimir Putin that Ukraine was merely “an ideological construct to be destroyed”, adding that the Russian Orthodox Church was also supporting the “genocidal war”.
It said Ukrainians would continue defending their “freedom and dignity”, regardless of calls for negotiations “by representatives of various states, including the Holy Father”.
Speaking in New York last week, the head of the UGCC Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk said no Ukrainians “would ever think of giving up” and advised doubters to “listen to people in Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Odessa, Kharkiv and Sumy”.
“Whoever doesn't believe in Ukraine's victory should go to confession, since it means they have little faith in the living God present in the body of the Ukrainian people,” he told Ukrainian Catholics at Manhattan’s St George Church.
“If Ukraine, God forbid, were even partially conquered, the flood of death would spread. The terrifying footage we all saw of Bucha was just an introduction – they wished to flood all of Kyiv with blood.”
Following the publication of the Pope’s comments, the Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said Francis had spoken of a “white flag” in response to an “image proposed by the interviewer”. He said it denoted “a cessation of hostilities, a truce reached with the courage of negotiation”, while the Pope had clearly stated that “negotiations are never a surrender”.
The apostolic nuncio to Kyiv, Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, also defended the Pope, telling Rome's La Repubblica daily on Monday that the “invitation to openness and dialogue” formed “part of the mission of the Holy See”.
However, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainians of all faiths had helped “protect life and humanity” during the war, and thanked those who were “really close, with actions and prayers” rather than “2,500 kilometres away, engaging in virtual mediation between the one who wants to live and the one who wants to destroy them”.
Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmitro Kuleba urged the Vatican to “avoid repeating mistakes” from the “first half of the twentieth century” and called on Francis to visit Ukraine and support its six million Catholics.
“Our flag is a yellow and blue one,” Kuleba said in a social media post. “This is the flag we live, die and prevail by, and we shall never raise any other flags.”
On Monday, the foreign ministry summoned the nuncio to express Kyiv’s “disappointment” at the Pope’s remarks.
In a statement following the summons, the ministry said that “instead of appeals that legalise the right of the strong and encourage them to further disregard the norms of international law”, the Pope should “send signals to the world community about the need to immediately join forces to ensure the victory of good over evil, as well as appeals to the attacker, not to the victim”.
In Russia, a Kremlin spokesman said it was “quite understandable that [the Pope] spoke in favour of negotiations”, blaming Ukraine for refusing mediation.
“Unfortunately, both the statements of the Pope and the repeated statements of other parties, including ours, have recently received absolutely harsh refusals.”
Ukrainians have objected to previous remarks about the war by Francis, notably his appeal to Russian Catholics in August to uphold the legacy of their country's “great and enlightened empire”.
Responding to the “white flag” remark, Nato’s secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg warned on Monday that “surrender does not mean peace”.
Germany’s foreign minister Annalena Berbock, expressed incomprehension at the Pope's remarks, while Latvia's president, Edgars Rinkevics, said in a social media post that it was evil that should “raise the white flag and capitulate”.
The rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, Taras Dobko, said he was surprised there had been “no key papal document on a lasting and just peace” as Europe's “largest and bloodiest war” for decades entered its third year, and no Vatican attempt to organise a “Christian world forum” to condemn the Russian Orthodox Church's “shameless support for military aggression” and “ugly instrumentalisation of the Gospel”.
“We are waiting for leadership and a prophetic voice from the Holy Father – not calls for a white flag,” Prof Dobko said in a social media post on Monday.
“If we have come closer to a nuclear catastrophe due to blackmail threats by the Russian regime, why are we not hearing about efforts at world-level initiatives by the Vatican to discuss peacebuilding, a new security architecture, norms of international law and nuclear disarmament?”
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