Pope Francis claims to have played a mediating role with Russia to speed up the release of some 300 Ukrainian prisoners, in an interview published Thursday, September 30 in a Jesuit journal.
In this interview conducted on September 15 with about twenty Jesuits during his visit to Kazakhstan, the sovereign pontiff confided that he had received “
Ukrainian emissaries
” at the Vatican.
“
A military leader responsible for the exchange of prisoners also came, always with the religious adviser to the president (Volodymyr) Zelensky.
This time they brought me a list of more than 300 prisoners
,” the pope says, according to a transcript published by the Italian Jesuit journal Civilta Cattolica.
“
They asked me to do something so that we proceed to an exchange.
I immediately called the Russian ambassador to see if something could be done, if an exchange of prisoners could be accelerated
”, he adds without further details.
“Cruel” War
The publication of these statements to clerics working in particular in Russia and Belarus comes a week after the announcement of the largest exchange of military prisoners between Ukraine and Russia since the start of the war.
kyiv announced on September 22 the release of 215 people, including 188 who had defended the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, a symbol of resistance to the Russian invasion, against 55 prisoners returned to Moscow.
Read alsoEuthanasia, Russia, China, Muslims… What Pope Francis said on the plane returning from Kazakhstan
The pope also returned to his visit to the Russian embassy in the Vatican the day after the start of the offensive launched on February 24.
"
I told the ambassador that I would have liked to speak with (Russian) President Vladimir Putin, on the condition that he leaves me a small window to dialogue
", confides François, who takes care never to mention the name. of the Russian President during his public speeches.
The Holy See has been trying since February 24 to maintain a delicate diplomatic balance with the two countries, with the pope condemning a “
cruel and senseless
” war while trying to maintain a path of dialogue with Moscow.
