Russia is not the only “empire” whose interests are driving the conflict in Ukraine, Pope Francis said in an interview with Swiss television RSI, set to be released on Sunday. Excerpts from the interview were published on Friday by several Italian outlets.
Asked about the ongoing conflict between Moscow and Kiev, the Pope noted that it had grown into a “world war” where “the great powers are all entangled.”
“The battlefield is Ukraine. Everyone is fighting there. This makes industry think of weapons,” the Pontiff commented.
He mentioned that on the second day after Russia launched its military offensive against Ukraine, he went to the Russian embassy and offered to travel to Moscow to personally negotiate with President Vladimir Putin. However, he said he was told by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that it was “not the time.”
The pontiff stated that Putin knows that the option to negotiate peace is always available, but acknowledged that there are “imperial interests” at play in the Ukrainian conflict, and “not only of the Russian empire, but of empires elsewhere.”
“It is the empire’s business to put nations second,” proclaimed the Pope.
Francis has repeatedly called for a peaceful end to the hostilities that have gripped Ukraine over the past year. However, after suggesting that the conflict was “perhaps somehow either provoked or not-prevented” and that there is an “interest in testing and selling weapons” at play, the Pope did point out that he is not a supporter of Putin.