Ukraine-Russia war: G7’s warning to Iran over Russia missiles
The G7 countries have threatened Iran with tough new sanctions if the rogue country sends Russia ballistic missiles.
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G7 countries have warned Iran that they will impose “significant” new sanctions if Tehran transfers ballistic missiles to Russia for use in Ukraine.
“We reiterate our call on third parties to immediately cease providing material support to Russia’s illegal and unjustifiable war of aggression against Ukraine or face severe costs,” the group, which includes the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada, said in a statement.
“Were Iran to proceed with providing ballistic missiles or related technology to Russia, we are prepared to respond swiftly and in a co-ordinated manner including with new and significant measures against Iran,” the countries said.
A senior US administration official told journalists that if Iran decides to sell ballistic missiles to Russia, the costs will far outweigh the benefits, saying the “transfer hasn’t happened, but there’s a there’s a real danger that it could.” Among the steps that have been discussed is ending national airline Iran Air’s flights to Europe, the official added, declining to provide details on other response options.
The G7 previously denounced support from China and Iran for Russia’s war in Ukraine in a statement issued on the second anniversary of the full-scale invasion of the country by Moscow’s forces.
They called on Iran to stop helping Russia’s military and expressed concern on the transfer by Chinese businesses of weapons components and military equipment to Moscow.
Ukrainian forces have been hit by ammunition shortages as additional funding for military aid to Kyiv remains stalled in the US Congress.
Moscow has turned to Tehran as well as Pyongyang to obtain arms for use in Ukraine, while Russia has also massively ramped up its domestic arms production.
RUSSIA SLAMS UKRAINE’S ‘BARBARIC’ ACTS
Russia and Ukraine have reported overnight aerial attacks have killed civilians, as both countries launched a wave of artillery and drone fire.
A Russian drone strike killed two people in the central Ukrainian region of Vinnytsia, Ukraine’s police said, while Moscow-installed officials said shelling by Kyiv’s army on the Russian-held city of Donetsk killed three children.
“Russian troops attacked the Vinnytsia region with drones, there are dead and wounded,” Ukraine’s national police said in a statement on Telegram.
“As a result of the enemy attack, a 52-year-old man was killed and his 53-year-old wife died in hospital,” it said.
The Vinnytsia region is more than 400 kilometres (250 miles) from the front lines.
Moscow-installed officials in the Russian-held city of Donetsk said shelling there had killed three children.
“As a result of barbaric overnight shelling … a direct hit was recorded on a house in a residential area,” Alexey Kulemzin, the Russian-appointed mayor of Donetsk, said in a post on Telegram.
“Three children died. A girl born in 2007, a girl born in 2021, and a boy born in 2014,” he added.
Russian forces last month captured the city of Avdiivka – just a few kilometres to the north of Donetsk – and said pushing Ukrainian forces back would help protect residents of areas under its control from shelling.
The head of Ukraine’s army said Friday that Russia had launched a wave of attacks to try to break through further in the area.
“The enemy has concentrated its main efforts and has been trying to break through … for several days in a row,” Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky said in a statement after visiting troops on the front lines around Avdiivka.
Ukraine’s air force said earlier that Russia fired 27 Iranian-style drones and eight missiles at its territory overnight – including at the Vinnytsia region.
It claimed to have shot them all down.
Russia also said Ukraine launched overnight drone attacks on areas closer to the countries’ shared border.
Russia’s defence ministry said Friday it had downed drones and rockets over the Belgorod border region and the Kaluga region, southwest of the capital Moscow.
“Air defence equipment intercepted and destroyed five drones and two rockets over the territories of the Belgorod and Kaluga regions,” it said in a statement on Telegram.
In a later statement it said another seven Ukrainian-launched rockets had been shot down over Belgorod – shortly after voting in Russia’s presidential elections got underway in the region.
The governor of Russia’s Lipetsk region also said Friday two drones were downed in a district around 300 kilometres away from Ukraine.
UKRAINE RAMPS UP ATTACKS AS PUTIN FACES ‘DIFFICULT’ ELECTION
Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged Russians to vote for him at a “difficult” time for the country, hours before polls open and as Kyiv launched a barrage of deadly attacks on Russian border regions.
The former KGB agent is set to extend his rule by another six years this weekend in a presidential election the Kremlin says will show that the country is fully behind his assault on Ukraine.
Ahead of the vote, Kyiv has ramped up its aerial bombardment of Russian regions just across their shared border.
At least two people were killed and several more wounded in a wave of attacks on the Russian region of Belgorod on Thursday.
And the Russian national guard said it was fighting off attacks from pro-Ukrainian militias in Kursk, the latest in a string of border clashes.
“I am convinced: you realise what a difficult period our country is going through, what complex challenges we are facing in almost all areas,” Putin said in an address to Russians on the eve of the vote.
“And in order to continue to respond to them with dignity and successfully overcome difficulties, we need to continue to be united and self-confident,” he said.
All of Putin’s major critics are dead, in prison or in exile, and authorities blocked the few genuine competitors who tried to stand in the March 15-17 contest.
Alexei Navalny, Putin’s most high-profile opponent over the last decade, died February in an Arctic prison colony.
He was serving 19 years for “extremism” – charges widely seen as retribution for his campaigning against the Kremlin leader.
Kyiv has this week launched some of its most significant aerial attacks since the start of the two-year conflict.
The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said that two people were killed and several more wounded in at least three separate waves of aerial attacks.
He accused Ukraine of trying to “sow panic, distrust, anger and resentment, in order to break the unit of our society”.
Shopping centres in the region were closed on Thursday and Gladkov urged residents to delay taking trips outside “to save your health and your life”.
Pro-Ukrainian paramilitaries also claimed to be escalating attacks and incursions in Russian border regions.
In a joint statement, three pro-Kyiv volunteer groups – claiming to consist of Russians who oppose the Kremlin and have taken up arms – called on authorities to evacuate civilians from the regions of Belgorod and Kursk.
Russia has rejected the militias’ claims to have gained ground. The national guard said that its units had beaten back “an attack by enemy diversion groups near the village of Tyotkino in the Kursk region”.
The defence ministry said it had fended off another attack by Ukrainian forces trying to enter the Belgorod region via the village of Spodariushino, without saying when the clash had taken place.
It published video images showing a series of air strikes on what it said was a Ukrainian sabotage group.
The fighting come just hours ahead of polls opening in Russia’s Far East for the March 15-17 presidential election.
Victory will allow Putin to stay in the Kremlin until at least 2030, a longer spell in power than any Russian leader since Catherine the Great in the 18th century.
Early voting is already underway in occupied territories of Ukraine, and the vote will also take place in Crimea, the peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014 – a move that most of the international community has refused to recognise.
Kyiv says staging the election on Ukrainian territory is illegal.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry dismissed the vote as a “farce” and called on the international community not to recognise the results.
Russia’s opposition has called for anti-Putin protests at midday on Sunday, the final day of voting.
‘WE ARE READY’: PUTIN’S NEW NUCLEAR WARNING
President Vladimir Putin has used a rare interview with state media to send a chilling warning that he was ready to deploy nuclear weapons if Russia’s sovereignty was threatened.
Mr Putin told the host Russia’s nuclear technologies were far more advanced than other countries.
Parts of the interview given to the state-owned RIA Novosti news agency were published on Wednesday.
“Our triad, the nuclear triad, it is more modern than any other triad. Only we and the Americans actually have such triads. And we have advanced much more here,” Mr Putin said in a wide-ranging interview with state media.
“We are ready to use weapons, including any weapons, including the weapons you mentioned, if it is a question of the existence of the Russian state or damage to our sovereignty and independence.”
The “triad” refers to Russia’s three-pronged arsenal of weapons launched from land, sea and air.
The Kremlin has touted its nuclear prowess throughout its two-year offensive in Ukraine, last month warning Western countries there was a “real” risk of nuclear catastrophe if they escalated the conflict.
The United States, however, said it had seen no sign Russia was planning to use nuclear weapons anytime soon.
“We have not seen any reasons to adjust our own nuclear posture, nor any indication that Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon in Ukraine,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said when asked about Mr Putin’s remarks.
“Nevertheless, Russia’s nuclear rhetoric has been reckless and irresponsible throughout this conflict.”
Mr Putin’s latest comments come just days ahead of elections in Russia that are all but guaranteed to hand him another six years in power as his military posts gains in Ukraine.
DRONE STRIKES SPARK RUSSIAN OIL REFINERY FIRE
A wave of drone strikes targeted Russia’s oil refineries and border regions for the second day in a row on Wednesday, with one sparking a fire and injuring several people in the Ryazan region, officials said.
Dozens of drones were launched overnight, with the vast majority shot down, causing some damage but no victims, over the Ukrainian border regions of Belgorod, Bryansk, Kursk and Voronezh, according to regional governors.
One sparked a fire and wounded several people when it crashed into an oil refinery in the Ryazan region that lies some 200km southeast of Moscow.
“The Ryazan oil refinery was attacked by a drone,” Ryazan regional governor Pavel Malkov wrote on Telegram. “According to preliminary information, there are injuries,” he wrote.
A fire broke out at the refinery following the strike and “all rescue services are working at the scene,” Malkov said.
A drone targeting another oil refinery in the Leningrad region near the second city of Saint Petersburg in northwest Russia was shot down, Alexander Drozdenko, the regional governor wrote on Telegram, adding there was no damage and no victims.
More than 30 drones were shot down over the Voronezh region, with some light damage reported, regional governor Alexander Gussev wrote on Telegram.
Six drones were shot down over the Belgorod region, damaging several electrical lines and causing power outages, governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on Telegram.
Eight drones were shot down over the Bryansk region and four were destroyed over the region of Kursk without reports of damage, the governors of those regions wrote on Telegram.
On Tuesday, Ukraine launched one of its most significant drone strikes on Russia so far in the two-year conflict.
Two Russian energy sites, including one of the largest oil refineries some 800km from the border, were hit in the strikes, Russian officials said.
A major oil refinery in Kstovo, just outside the city of Nizhny Novgorod, was hit by a drone early on Tuesday morning, the regional governor said.
Another drone crashed into a fuel depot and started a fire in Oryol, around 160km from the border, according to the regional governor.
PUTIN CRITIC ATTACKED WITH HAMMER
Leonid Volkov, a close ally of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was admitted to hospital after being attacked outside his home in Lithuania, local police told AFP.
Volkov, 43, is one of Russia’s most prominent opposition figures and was a close confidant of Navalny, working as the late leader’s ex-chief of staff and as chair of his Anti-Corruption Foundation until 2023.
“Leonid Volkov has just been attacked outside his house. Someone broke a car window and sprayed tear gas in his eyes, after which the attacker started hitting Leonid with a hammer,” Navalny spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on X, formerly Twitter.
Volkov’s wife Anna Biryukova shared photos of her husband’s injuries on social media, including a black eye, a red mark on his forehead and bleeding on his leg, which had soaked through his jeans.
Navalny’s team later shared an image of Volkov being carried into an ambulance on a stretcher.
Lithuanian police spokesman Ramunas Matonis confirmed to AFP that a Russian citizen was assaulted near his home in the capital Vilnius around 10pm local time.
“A lot of police are working at the scene,” Matonis said.
The suspects have not been identified and more details about the assault are expected on Wednesday morning, he added.
Police confirmed that Volkov had been admitted into hospital.
The attack comes almost a month after Navalny’s death in an Arctic prison, which Volkov blamed on Russian President Vladimir Putin, and days before elections set to extend the Kremlin chief’s stay in power.
The day before he was attacked, Volkov wrote on social media: “Putin killed Navalny. And many others before that.” Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis condemned Volkov’s beating in a social media post.
“News about Leonid’s assault are shocking. Relevant authorities are at work. Perpetrators will have to answer for their crime,” he said on X.
NATO member Lithuania is home to many Russian exiles and has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine throughout Russia’s invasion.
Russian dissidents who have spoken out against the Kremlin often complain of being targeted with threats and attacks.
Volkov told the independent Russian news outlet Meduza hours before he was beaten on Tuesday that he was worried for his safety after Navalny’s death.
“The key risk now is that we will all be killed. Why, it’s a pretty obvious thing,” the outlet quoted him as saying.
Volkov went into exile in 2019 along with several other of Navalny’s allies after authorities launched a criminal probe into the leader’s Anti-Corruption Foundation.
Volkov was declared wanted by Russian authorities in 2021 over his role in drumming up mass protests against the Kremlin together with Navalny.
PRO-UKRAINE MILITIA ATTACK RUSSIA
Pro-Ukrainian militias have staged a brazen cross-border raid, claiming to take control of a Russian village, as Kyiv launched one of its largest drone attacks since the start of the war.
Groups of pro-Kyiv volunteer fighters, made up of Russians who oppose the Kremlin, said that they had broken into the Kursk and Belgorod regions, while Moscow said it had fired rockets and artillery to foil the attempted incursion.
“The village of Tyotkino, Kursk region is completely under the control of Russian liberation forces,” the Freedom of Russia legion, a militia that claims to be made up of Russian citizens fighting on behalf of Ukraine, said in a post on Telegram.
It published a video purporting to show a handful of Russian troops fleeing across a snowy field.
Moscow denied that the fighters had made ground, saying its forces had thwarted multiple attacks, while Freedom of Russia region told AFP fighting was ongoing.
Moscow also reported a wave of Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian border regions overnight, saying it had shot down four Ukrainian drones over the Kursk region in the space of an hour.
Kursk Governor Roman Starovoyt said there had been a shootout in his region. The neighbouring Belgorod region was also hit in a series of drone attacks including a strike on Belgorod city hall, the regional governor said.
Officials in Kursk city said they were closing schools until the end of the week amid the spike in attacks.
A spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence, Andriy Yusov, said the fighters were not acting under orders from Kyiv.
But he said the attacks showed “the Kremlin is once again not in control of the situation in Russia.”
Ukraine-based militias – made up of Russian citizens who oppose Moscow’s invasion and have taken up arms for Kyiv – have claimed to be behind previous incursions into Russian territory.
The Russian Volunteer Corps and the Freedom of Russia Legion said they took temporary control of several settlements in the Belgorod region in May and June 2023 in a string of raids after breaking through a border checkpoint.
A spokesman for the political wing of the Freedom of Russia Legion told AFP the latest attack was timed to coincide with Russia’s March 15-17 presidential elections.
“This is not an election at all. It is the next stage of a usurpation of power, the formation of Putin’s dictatorship under the guise of elections,” spokesman Alexei Baranovsky said.
Kyiv launched one of its most significant drone strikes on Russia so far in the two-year war.
Two Russian energy sites, including one of the largest oil refineries 800 kilometres from the border, were hit overnight, Russian officials said.
Ukraine has justified attacks on Russian energy sites as legitimate targeting of infrastructure used to fuel the invasion. It did not claim responsibility for Tuesday’s strikes.
A major oil refinery in Kstovo, just outside the city of Nizhny Novgorod, was hit by a drone early on Tuesday morning, the regional governor said.
Lukoil describes it as an 'operational upset' at the 17-million tonne/year Kstovo refinery in Nizhny Novgorod. This facility handles 5% of Russia's oil volume and sits 800 km away from Ukraine 👀 pic.twitter.com/b1xaXqH0Pw
— Maria Avdeeva (@maria_avdv) March 12, 2024
Russia’s Lukoil energy giant, which owns the refinery and says it is one of the largest in Russia, said it had “temporarily suspended” operations there after an unspecified “incident”.
Videos on social media showed a large blaze raging in a facility purported to be the refinery, billowing black smoke into the sky.
🔴🇷🇺🔥🔥🔥 By the way, the "Lukoil" oil refinery in Kstovo, burning since nightfall, is the 4th largest in Russia
— ð€ð§ð§ðš ðŠðŽðŒð’ð€ | 🇪🇺🇫🇷🇵🇱🇺🇦 (@tweetforAnna) March 12, 2024
It is fed by two oil pipelines. pic.twitter.com/rCElBX4HXm
Another drone crashed into a fuel depot and ignited a fire in Oryol, around 160 kilometres from the border, according to the regional governor.
Russia’s state news agencies also cited the defence ministry as saying a Russian Il-76 military transport plane with 15 people on board had crashed in the Ivanovo region, around 200 kilometres east of Moscow, after an engine fire.
UKRAINE LAUNCHES 25 DRONES, HITTING FUEL DEPOTS
It comes as Ukraine launched more than two dozen drones at Russia, with fires breaking out at two fuel depots and some of the projectiles reaching deep into Russian territory.
Russia’s defence ministry said it had destroyed 25 drones overnight, including two in the Moscow region, one in the Leningrad region to the north, 11 each in the Ukraine border regions of Belgorod and Kursk, and one in another border region of Bryansk.
Drone attacks also set fuel depots ablaze in the towns of Oryol, some 160 kilometres and 828 kilometres, respectively, from the Ukraine border.
In Kstovo a fuel and energy complex was attacked by drones, according to the regional governor.
“Now the special services are working on the spot, using all the necessary forces and means to localise the fire at one of the oil refining installations,” Gleb Nikitin said on messaging app Telegram. “According to preliminary data, no victims.”
Earlier in Oryol, a drone crashed into a fuel depot and ignited a fire, according to the region’s governor.
Ukrainian drones also attacked the Russian region of Belgorod, near the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, on Monday night, causing no injuries, according to that region’s governor.
According to Gladkov, seven communities were without electricity as a result of the attack.
UKRAINE’S OSCAR VICTORY SHOWS ‘RUSSIAN TERRORISM’
Ukraine hailed its first Oscar, awarded to a harrowing documentary about Russia’s assault on the city of Mariupol, as showing “the truth about Russian terrorism” to the world.
The film, 20 Days in Mariupol, won the Best Documentary Oscar for its raw portrayal of journalists trapped inside the southern port city as Russian forces pounded it with an intense aerial bombardment.
“Russia brutally attacked Mariupol over two years ago. The film ‘20 Days in Mariupol’ depicts the truth about Russian terrorism,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media.
Directed by Ukrainian Mstyslav Chernov, the film is based on first-hand footage of the devastating impact of Russia’s near-constant air and artillery attacks in February and March 2022 as its forces encircled and then entered the city.
Mariupol was almost completely destroyed by Russian attacks that Kyiv says killed tens of thousands of civilians. “I wish I’d never made this film,” Chernov said when accepting the award in Hollywood on Sunday.
Chernov, along with photographer Evgeniy Maloletka and producer Vasilisa Stepanenko, were the last international journalists in the city.
They arrived before it was besieged by Russian forces and then became trapped inside.
The reports they sent out included pictures of pregnant women covered in blood and bodies being dumped into mass graves.
Their work made international headlines, and also made them a target for Russian forces.
“The Russians were hunting us down. They had a list of names, including ours, and they were closing in,” Chernov wrote a week after he managed to leave the city.
They were smuggled out, along with 30 hours of mostly unseen video footage, by Ukrainian soldiers in mid-March 2022, crossing 15 Russian checkpoints before arriving in Ukrainian-held territory, Chernov said.
Speaking after receiving the Oscar, Chernov recalled the strike on the maternity hospital almost exactly two years ago.
“That moment became a symbol of the invasion, of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and a symbol of war crimes that they did there,” he said.
He also lamented that support for Ukraine had become a “bargaining chip” for politicians around the world.
‘NEVER’: UKRAINE HITS BACK AT POPE’S MESSAGE
Ukraine angrily rejected Pope Francis’s call to negotiate with Russia two years into its invasion, vowing “never” to surrender after the pontiff said Kyiv should “have the courage to raise the white flag”.
The pope’s comments fuelled anger in Kyiv this weekend after he said in an interview that Ukraine should negotiate with Russia, which has seized large swathes of its territory in the offensive.
“Our flag is a yellow and blue one. This is the flag by which we live, die, and prevail. We shall never raise any other flags,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.
He was responding to the Pope’s interview to Swiss broadcaster RTS in which the Catholic leader raised the prospect of surrender.
Ukrainian officials compared the statement to some of the Catholic Church collaborating with Nazi Germany during World War II.
Ukraine’s ambassador to the Vatican, Andrii Yurash, compared the Pope’s negotiation suggestion to talking to Adolf Hitler: “(The) lesson is only one – if we want to finish war, we have to do everything to kill (the) Dragon!,” he said on social media.
After the interview aired, Francis offered fresh prayers for “martyred Ukraine”, as Vatican officials said his call was simply intended to end fierce fighting.
But president Volodymyr Zelensky renewed Ukraine’s criticism. “Christians, Muslims, Jews – everyone … They support us with prayer, conversation, and deeds.
“This is what the church is – with people. And not two and a half thousand kilometres away, somewhere to mediate virtually between someone who wants to live and someone who wants to destroy you.”
UK OPPOSES SENDING TROOPS TO UKRAINE, EVEN FOR TRAINING
British foreign minister David Cameron said he opposes sending Western troops to Ukraine, even for training missions.
Mr Cameron said training missions are best carried out abroad, noting that Britain has trained 60,000 Ukrainian soldiers that way.
Placing foreign soldiers in Ukraine would provide targets for Russia, he said.
French President Emmanuel Macron set off a stir among his allies on February 26 when he did not exclude sending Western troops to Ukraine to help it fend off Russia’s invasion.
Britain later confirmed that it had sent small units to Ukraine to help with medical training, but a spokesman for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the country does not foresee large-scale deployments.
Mr Cameron told German media Ukraine needed more long-range weapons and that he was willing to work with Berlin to lift its reticence to supplying German-made Taurus cruise missiles.
He wouldn’t directly address suggestions that Berlin provide Britain with Taurus missiles to free up the UK to send more British-French Storm Shadow cruise missiles to Ukraine.
Berlin has refused to deliver Taurus missiles to Ukraine, fearful that its 500km range would be used to hit targets deep into Russian territory.
47 UKRAINE DRONES DESTROYED: RUSSIA
Russia said that it had destroyed 47 Ukrainian drones over its southern regions, mostly in the Rostov area bordering Ukraine.
Kyiv has regularly launched drones into Russia during Moscow’s military offensive in Ukraine, now in its third year.
“Air defence systems on duty intercepted and destroyed over the territories of Belgorod region (one drone), Kursk region (two drones), Volgograd region (three drones) and Rostov region (41 drones),” the Russian army said on social media.
The southern Rostov region is a hub for the Russian army to plan its military operations in Ukraine.
Rostov’s governor Vasily Golubev said on social media that a drone attack had hit the city of Taganrog, on the Azov Sea near a Russian-occupied part of Ukraine.
He said a rescue worker was wounded but there were “no dead”.
KYIV SAYS RUSSIAN ATTACKS KILL SEVERAL
Russian shelling and strikes on Ukraine’s Kherson region killed one person and wounded several, with at least two civilians also killed in attacks on the centre and east of the country, Kyiv said.
Kyiv’s interior ministry said Russian shelling killed a 58-year-old woman in the southern village of Olhivka on the Dnipro river.
Officials also said a Russian air bomb fell near a residential building in the city of Kherson, wounding a child.
It published a video of a destroyed building, with a large crater outside it.
“A seven-year-old boy who suffered from the shelling is under medical supervision,” authorities said, adding that “the child’s life is not in danger.”
Authorities said two more people were pulled out alive from the damaged building and that “the rest of the residents were quickly evacuated.”
Kyiv also said a teenage boy was killed as he walked with his elder brother in the village of Chervonogrygorivka, on the Dnipro river in the central Dnipropetrovsk region.
“Two brothers came under fire in the middle of the street: 16 and 22 years old. The younger one died from his wounds,” the interior ministry said.
“The older one was taken to the hospital with serious injuries. Doctors are fighting for his life,” it added.
In the embattled eastern Donetsk region, officials said a man had been killed in the frontline town of Chasiv Yar.
“A 46-year-old man was fatally wounded,” Vadym Filashkin, the head of the Donetsk region said on social media.
Filashkin earlier said officials evacuated almost 200 people from frontline villages, including 21 children, amid heavy fighting.
POPE URGES ‘COURAGE TO NEGOTIATE’
Pope Francis has urged parties in the Ukraine war to “negotiate before things get worse”, in an interview published on Saturday by Swiss television.
The 87-year-old pontiff was asked by the public broadcaster RTS about a debate within Ukraine on whether to surrender to Russia’s invasion, or if that would only legitimise the power of force.
“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 the interview, conducted in early February.
Speaking about war in general, including the Hamas-Israel war, he added: “Negotiations are never a surrender. It is the courage not to carry a country to suicide.”
“That word negotiate is a brave word. When you see that you are defeated, that things are not working out, to have the courage to negotiate,” he said.
The Head of the worldwide Catholic Church said people might be ashamed but asked how many lives were being lost.
“Today, for example with the war in Ukraine, there are many who want to act as mediators. Turkey for example,” he said.
“Don’t be ashamed to negotiate before things get worse.”
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