2023-05-13 19:07:00
“With all due respect to Pope”
Zelenskyj: We don’t need any intermediaries
May 13, 2023, 9:07 p.m
After his meetings with Italian leaders, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy made it clear on Italian television what he thinks of the Vatican’s efforts towards a peace dialogue. Rather, Ukraine needs an action plan for a just peace.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj sees little promise in the Vatican’s efforts to establish a peace dialogue with Russia. “With all due respect to the Pope, the thing is that what we need is not a mediator between Ukraine and the aggressor who occupied our territories, but an action plan for a just peace in Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said on the TV show “Porta a Porta” by the radio station Rai 1. He was specifically asked regarding the Pope’s possible role as a mediator, but in his answer he also included other actors as possible mediators.
According to Selenskyj, the past has shown that it is not possible to mediate with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “No country in the world can do that,” added Zelenskyy. He recalled the so-called Minsk Agreement of 2014 to end violence in eastern Ukraine. Zelensky said that this had brought nothing for years – and in the end Moscow attacked Ukraine. When asked if he was currently speaking to Putin at all, he replied: “No, what should we talk regarding?” In theory, Putin might make diplomatic concessions. “But following a year he would start killing once more,” said Zelenskyj.
Previous audience with the Pope
The Ukrainian President had previously met with the head of the Catholic Church in the Vatican during his visit to Rome. He spoke to Francis regarding the fate of “tens of thousands of deported children,” Zelenskyj explained on Telegram. “We must do everything to bring them home,” he added. Kiev accuses Russia of deporting at least 20,000 Ukrainian children. In mid-March, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants once morest Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin and the Russian President’s “Child Rights Commissioner”, Maria Alexeyevna Lvowa-Belowa, because of the kidnappings.
Zelenskyj also stated that he had spoken to Francis regarding the ten-point peace plan presented by Kiev and suggested that the pontiff “help to implement it”. The plan presented by the Ukrainian head of state last November provides, among other things, for the territorial integrity of Ukraine, the release of Ukrainian prisoners and food security in Ukraine. Russia has repeatedly rejected him.
1684007687
#due #respect #Pope #Zelenskyj #dont #intermediaries
