Vatican official defends Pope’s ‘soft’ approach with Putin

A senior Vatican official has responded to criticism that Pope Francis failed to condemn Russian intervention in Ukraine when he met President Vladimir Putin at the Vatican on 10 June. The Pope has described the conflict there as a “fratricidal” or civil war, while the Western nations of the G7 regard Russia as an aggressor not only for its annexation of Crimea but for its backing of military resistance to Kiev in eastern Ukraine. President Barack Obama even suggested that Mr Putin might be bent on recreating “the glories of the Soviet empire”.
According to the Vatican statement after the meeting, the Pope told Mr Putin it was important to rebuild a climate of dialogue, and “for all parties to implement the Minsk agreements”.

This fell far short of the hope expressed by the US ambassador to the Holy See, Kenneth Hackett, that Francis “say something about territorial integrity”.

However, a senior Vatican official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Tablet that, because Pope Francis had resisted such pressures, there was now a considerable obligation on Mr Putin to respond to the demands that Pope Francis had in fact made. The main one, the official said, concerned the Minsk accord.

In the Belarus capital, Minsk, last February, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany agreed on a ceasefire, the withdrawal of heavy weapons from eastern Ukraine, withdrawal of all foreign militias as well as  “decentralisation” for rebel regions by the end of 2015, and Ukrainian control of the border with Russia, also by the end of 2015. EU sanctions imposed on Russia remain in place because the EU does not see Russia as having met the terms of the Minsk accord.

The Vatican official said it was important to convince Mr Putin to “come back to the table”. He saw Ukraine’s future as a “bridge” between East and West, possibly through the establishment of a federation between the east and west of the country. But Mr Putin, he insisted, “would have to withdraw his weapons from the east”.