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Pope Francis’ statement about the need for Ukraine to raise the white flag and negotiate with Russia also had a positive effect – all allies came out in support of Ukraine. German political scientist, analyst at the Stockholm Center for East European Studies Andreas Umland stated this on the FREEDOM TV channel.
In his opinion, the duality and ambivalence of the statement that came from the lips of the Pope is a sign that the pontiff is far from understanding the nature of the Russian war against Ukraine.
“And I joked on Twitter (social network X – ed.) that what would it be like if the Pope discussed with the devil the surrender of his church, because it would be more reasonable for some reason. Well, I think it’s just naivety, a lack of understanding of this regime. Probably, such proposals were made for good reasons. They probably honestly think that they are helping with this,” Umland said.
The political scientist noted that his academic colleagues in Germany, by saying something similar, are confident that they are doing something good for Ukraine by pushing for negotiations.
“This is such naivety. I don’t know, it’s very difficult for me to explain. And against the backdrop of what happened, of course, Russian propaganda is playing with this. But it must still be said that the reaction was quite clear and negative to this statement by the Pope. And I think this is now also becoming a problem for the Vatican and for the Catholic Church. Sometimes such scandals even have some positive effect because they cause a backlash,” Umland said.
He believes that the Pope was in some ways expressing a more widespread view in a number of countries in the global South.
“And this scandal is rather a symptom of a larger problem, a misunderstanding of this conflict and this Russian attack, which is considered simply some kind of conflict that needs to be resolved through negotiations, through some kind of compromises. It’s hard for me to say what exactly is behind this, because from some point of view it all looks illogical, because all these countries of the global South went through their own history of colonization, they themselves came out of the empire. And therefore one might think that they should sympathize with Ukraine, they should understand this situation as a war of liberation. But, alas, here Russian propaganda managed to formulate such an alternative narrative that this is a confrontation between Russia and Western, against American imperialism. And, alas, many believe in this,” the political scientist noted.
At the same time, he emphasized that individual politicians in Africa, Latin America, and Asia understand the essence of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
“Well, for example, there is the new Argentine president, who makes different statements and, fortunately, better understands the complexity and essence of Russian attitude towards Ukraine,” the political scientist said.
Read also: Pentagon now considers sending long-range ATACMS to Ukraine – Wall Street Journal
Let us recall that the head of the Vatican press service, Matteo Bruni, commenting on Pope Francis’ statement about the need for Ukraine to raise the white flag and negotiate with Russia, said that the pontiff in no way meant the capitulation of Kyiv.
