In the general audience, speaking of the war in Ukraine, the Pope asked to pray that "the rulers understand that buying weapons and making weapons is not the solution to the problem. The solution is to work together for peace".
"With war everything is lost, everything, there is no victory in a war, everything is defeated. May the Lord send his Spirit to make us understand that war is a defeat of humanity" and "free us from this need for self-destruction ", the Pope said." The news of displaced people, people fleeing, dead people, wounded people, many soldiers who have fallen on both sides, are news of death. Let us ask the Lord of life may he free us from this death of war ", the Pope added, asking to join him in prayer on 25 March when he will consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Then, speaking of the importance of the relationship between the elderly and the younger generations, he confided: "I can give a personal testimony. I learned the hatred and anger of war from my grandfather who had made the Piave in the ' 14 and he transmitted this anger to me at the war because he told me about the sufferings of the war and this cannot be learned from books, you learn by passing it on from grandparents to grandchildren ".
Ukrainian Ambassador: "We will do everything possible for the Pope in Kiev"
- "We greatly appreciate the role of the Holy See, the Pope's words on Ukraine. We will do everything possible to organize Pope Francis' visit to Kiev but not everything depends on us , security must be organized, we will do what we can ".
This was stated by the Ukrainian ambassador to Italy Yaroslav Melnyk interviewed by Sky Tg24, adding that first a ceasefire should be reached in order to guarantee the safety of the pope.
