Pope Francis apparently spoke more to the West than to kyiv when he called for “white flag courage” to negotiate a peace deal. The spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, is convinced of this and comments on Bergoglio's statements on Swiss television in Ansa, which triggered a strong reaction from Kiev: “In my opinion, the Pope asks the West to put aside part of its ambitions and admit that it was wrong – he told Ansa – we never blocked the negotiations”. Zakharova's version is that, according to her, “every expert, every man politically, every diplomat understands today that the situation in Ukraine is in an impasse.” And this is why, he explains, “many diplomats and countries are asking for negotiations.” And he reiterates that the pope would not speak to the West of the need to negotiate with Moscow only “because everyone understands that Ukraine is not independent, that the Kiev regime is under pressure from the West”.
History according to Zakharova
Zakharova defines “the Ukrainian project” as a substantial “failure” of NATO countries, which began in 2014 with “only the flag of democracy”, with the pro-European protests that led to the Maidan revolution and to new elections. “A coup d’état – Zakharova calls them – an unconstitutional regime change.” The spokesperson notably recalled the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in spring 2022 in Istanbul, which were then blocked. It was only in 2023, he added, following interviews with Ukrainian officials (notably Kiev's chief negotiator at the time, David Arakhamia, editor's note), that he was clarified that these negotiations had been blocked “under pressure from Boris Johnson”, then British Prime Minister. Then, under “pressure from the United States,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree, still in force, banning negotiations with Moscow.
“You were wrong”
According to Zakharova, this was all a Western plan to provoke a conflict with Russia: “In the mind of the West, there was only one solution: war. Ukraine was sacrificed as a tool. Unfortunately, they sacrificed the Ukrainian people, the Ukrainian state and world peace just for their ambitions. This is why today the Pope asks them: “put aside your ambitions and recognize that you were wrong”.
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