KYIV - Ukraine on Monday summoned the Vatican's envoy to Kyiv after Pope Francis suggested the country should consider raising "the white flag" against Russia, causing fury in Kyiv.
Ukraine has angrily rejected Pope Francis's suggestion to negotiate with Russia two years after its invasion, vowing "never" to surrender to Moscow.
"Due to the statements of Pope Francis the Apostolic Nuncio was invited to the ministry of foreign affairs of Ukraine," the ministry said on social media, using the term for a Vatican diplomat.
It added that the envoy, Visvaldas Kulbodas, was told Kyiv was "disappointed with the words of the Pontiff regarding the 'white flag'".
The ministry said the Catholic leader's words "encourage them (Russia) to further disregard international law".
"The head of the Holy See should have sent signals to the international community about the need to immediately unite forces to ensure the victory of good over evil, as well as appealed to the attacker, not the victim," it added.
The 87-year-old pontiff had said in an interview aired over the weekend: "I believe that the strongest are those who see the situation, think about the people and have the courage to raise the white flag and negotiate".
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday the pontiff was engaging in "virtual mediation" and his foreign minister said Kyiv would never capitulate.
The pope's comments were also widely criticised by numerous leaders including those from Ukraine, Poland and Latvia.
As the West grapples with how to support Ukraine and the prospect of a sharp change in US policy if Donald Trump wins November's presidential election, Russia's President Vladimir Putin has essentially offered to freeze the battlefield along its current front lines, a premise Ukraine rejects.
"It is quite understandable that he (the pope) spoke in favour of negotiations," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
He said Putin had repeatedly said Russia was open to peace talks.
"Unfortunately, both the statements of the pope and the repeated statements of other parties, including ours, have recently received absolutely harsh refusals," Peskov said.
Russia says it sent its troops into Ukraine in February 2022 in a "special military operation" to ensure its own security. Kyiv and the West decry it as a colonial-style war of conquest.
Moscow's offers to negotiate have invariably been predicated on Kyiv giving up the territory that Moscow has seized and declared part of Russia - more than a sixth of Ukraine.
Peskov said Western hopes of inflicting a "strategic defeat" on Russia were "the deepest misconception", adding: "The course of events, primarily on the battlefield, is the clearest evidence of this".
But North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said negotiations that would preserve Ukraine as a sovereign and independent nation would only come when Putin realised that he would not win on the battlefield.
"If we want a negotiated, peaceful, lasting solution, the way to get there is to provide military support to Ukraine," he told Reuters at Nato headquarters in Brussels.
Asked if this meant now was not the time to talk about a white flag, he said: "It's not the time to talk about surrender by the Ukrainians. That will be a tragedy for the Ukrainians".
He added: "It will also be dangerous for all of us. Because then the lesson learned in Moscow is that when they use military force, when they kill thousands of people, when they invade another country, they get what they want".
Ukraine's Zelensky, who signed a decree in 2022 ruling out talks with Putin, said last week Russia will not be invited to a peace summit due to be held in Switzerland.
Zelensky's peace plan calls for a withdrawal of Russian troops, a return to Ukraine's 1991 borders, and due process to hold Russia accountable for its actions. Russia says it cannot hold any talks under such a premise.
