2023-05-14 04:55:00
President Volodimir Zelensky evoked yesterday in the Vatican with Pope Francis “the tragedy of millions of Ukrainians”, before traveling to Germany, which announced a military aid package for Kiev, in full preparation of a counteroffensive to recover territories occupied by Russia .
“I am grateful to you for your personal attention to the tragedy of millions of Ukrainians,” Zelensky wrote on social media after meeting for 40 minutes with the 86-year-old Argentine pontiff.
Zelenski specified that among the issues discussed was the fate of “tens of thousands of children deported” from the areas of his country occupied by Russian troops, according to accusations investigated by international justice. “We must do everything possible to get them back home,” he added, revealing that he asked the Pope to “condemn Russia’s crimes in Ukraine” because “there can be no equality between the victim and the aggressor.”
He added that he also evoked the ten-point “peace plan” supported by kyiv for several months, which Moscow has rejected on several occasions. “I spoke of our peace formula as the only effective algorithm to achieve a just peace. I proposed that he join its implementation, ”he assured on his Twitter account as soon as he left their meeting in the Vatican.
The Vatican indicated that during the audience both leaders referred to the “humanitarian and political situation in Ukraine” since the start of the Russian intervention in February 2022 and that they agreed to “continue efforts to support the population.”
In addition, a couple of hours after the meeting in the Vatican, Zelenski has indicated that Ukraine does not need any mediator to negotiate peace: “We do not need mediators between Ukraine and the aggressor,” he remarked on the Italian television program Porta a Porta de la public channel Rai: “It is not a matter of the Vatican or the United States, or Latin America, or China, or any other country in the world: Putin only kills, we cannot mediate with him,” he said.
Last week, returning from his trip to Hungary, Pope Francis revealed that the Vatican had launched a “peace mission” between Ukraine and Russia. However, both kyiv and Moscow said they were unaware of these efforts. Shortly after, the Vatican Secretary of State and ultimate head of diplomacy, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, insisted that there is “confidential news” about the peace mission, but qualified that it is “reserved.”
Mattarella and Meloni. Zelenski previously held meetings in Rome with the Italian president, Sergio Mattarella, and with the head of government, Giorgia Meloni, in the midst of a strong security device. The two had a 70-minute face-to-face interview with the Italian premier pledging Italy’s full support for Kiev despite a history of warm ties with Moscow at home and among its coalition partners, including a leading figure in the ruling alliance, Senator and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who has never hidden his friendship with Vladimir Putin.
At the joint press conference, Zelensky thanked Meloni “for helping to save lives” while detailing what he called new aggression by Russia. “I have not come to complain, I have come to talk about our cooperation and thank you once again for helping us, for the good of our country, because we want peace,” he said. Italy has sent arms and aid to kyiv, although it has never revealed exactly what it has delivered. Meloni, who visited Zelensky in kyiv in February, said yesterday: “I am convinced that Ukraine will win and will be reborn stronger, prouder and more prosperous than before.”
This is the first visit by the Ukrainian president to Italy, a member country of the European Union (EU) and NATO, since the start of the war.
Germany. Zelenski will continue his tour today in Germany, which he announced a new military aid plan for Ukraine, of 2.7 billion euros (2.95 billion dollars).
The package, the largest in Germany since the start of the war, according to the weekly Der Spiegel, will include 30 Leopard-1 A5 tanks, Marder-type armored vehicles, anti-aircraft defense systems and surveillance drones.
“We all want a speedy end to this heinous Russian war against the Ukrainian people, but unfortunately it is not in sight. That is why Germany will provide all the help it can, for as long as it takes,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said in a statement. Western countries have multiplied their announcements of military aid to Ukraine in recent days, irritating Moscow.
Russia on Friday called Britain’s decision to deliver long-range missiles to Ukraine “extremely hostile” and accused the British government of seeking a “serious escalation” of the conflict.
The head of European Union (EU) diplomacy, Josep Borrell, yesterday urged other European nations to provide long-range weapons to Ukraine. “The Russians are bombing from afar, so the Ukrainians need to reach the same distance,” Borrell said after meeting Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Stockholm.
Version war. On the ground, both Russia and Ukraine claim advances in the Bakhmut region in the east, where the longest and bloodiest battle of this war is being fought. The Ukrainian army assured that it “advances” in “some areas” around Bakhmut and that “the enemy loses equipment and troops.” The Russian Ministry of Defense assured for its part that its troops “liberated a neighborhood in the northwestern part of the city of Artiomovsk”, the Russian name for Bakhmut.
The Ukrainian prosecutor’s office reported that at least two people were killed, one of them a 15-year-old girl, and ten were injured in a shelling attack on the city of Kostiantynivka, some 25 km from Bakhmut.
Expectations for kyiv’s spring counteroffensive are rising, but Zelensky said on Thursday his army needed more time to launch a full-scale counteroffensive. “We are mentally prepared,” but under the current conditions “we would lose a lot of people,” he said.
A Russian army Mi-8 helicopter crashed yesterday in the city of Klintsi, near the border with Ukraine, for reasons undetermined so far, and its two crew members died, according to Russian rescuers quoted by the official TASS news agency.
A person in charge of the Russian occupation in Ukraine, Vladimir Rogov, assured that “two helicopters were shot down” on Russian territory. His claims were not confirmed or denied by the competent authorities so far.
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