Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba summoned Vatican ambassador to Kyiv to protest – Show of concern for human life and ‘not a political position’, Vatican says
The Vatican tried today to mend strained relations with Ukraine after o Pope Francis caused his discomfort Kiev referring to Russian ultranationalist Daria Duginawho was killed by a bomb explosion in her car near Moscow, as an innocent victim of war.
Last week, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba summoned the Vatican’s ambassador to Kyiv to protest, saying the pope’s words were “unfair” and “broke Ukraine’s heart”.
There had been strong criticism of the pope from the ambassador of Ukraine to the Vatican, Andriy Yuras.
Francis sparked the controversy last Wednesday, speaking out of context at the general audience of the faithful, on the anniversary of Ukraine’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and six months since the start of the Russian invasion.
“The innocent pay for war,” Francis said, referring to “that poor girl who was blown up by a bomb placed under the seat of a car in Moscow.”
A statement issued by the Vatican today did not specifically mention the pope’s comments about Dugina but referred to a “public discussion about the political significance” of the pope’s comments on Ukraine.
He said they should be seen as a sign of concern for human life and “not as taking a political position”.
Alexander Dugin, Daria’s father, has long advocated uniting the Russian-speaking and other regions into a new Russian empire that would include Ukraine.
Dugina widely supported her father’s ideas and appeared on state television in her own right to offer support for Russian actions in Ukraine.
Russia blamed Ukrainian agents for the August 20 killing of Dugina, a charge Kyiv denies.
The Vatican’s statement said the war “started from the Russian Federation”, a phrase which one diplomat said appeared to be worded to reassure Kyiv that the Vatican had not put Russia and Ukraine on the same side.
In a tweet on the day the pope made his comments, Yuras, the Ukrainian envoy to the Vatican, said: “How is it possible to refer to one of the ideologues of (Russian) imperialism as an innocent victim? … We cannot put same category the attacker and the victim, the rapist and the raped”.
The Vatican statement said the pope had made “clear and unequivocal” denunciations of the war as “morally unjustifiable, unacceptable, barbaric, irrational, repugnant and unjust”.
In an exclusive interview with Reuters last month, Francis said he wants to visit Kyiv but also wants to go to Moscow, preferably first, to promote peace.
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