The Vatican was forced to walk back remarks from Pope Francis after he told Russians last week to take pride in being “the heirs” of “that great, enlightened Russian empire.”
(Bloomberg) — The Vatican was forced to walk back remarks from Pope Francis after he told Russians last week to take pride in being “the heirs” of “that great, enlightened Russian empire.”
The Foreign Ministry in Kyiv called the speech “sad,” while the head of Ukraine’s Greek Catholic Church denounced it as an endorsement of Russia’s “nationalism and imperialism that today has caused the war in Ukraine — a war that brings death and destruction to our people every day.”
Ukraine’s forces continued to advance around Bakhmut in the east and toward Melitopol, the General Staff said, after Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said troops had broken through Moscow’s first line of fortifications in the south. The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn’t plan to attend the funeral of Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who died in a plane crash.
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