| Pope Francis’s secret ‘mission’ of peace |
| Pope Francis said yesterday that the Vatican was involved in a secret “mission” to stop the war between Russia and Ukraine and that it would do “all that is humanly possible” to return children taken from Ukraine to Russia and to reunite families. He did not specify what the “not yet public” mission entailed. |
| Early in the war, the pope was reluctant to name Russia as the aggressor, in part because he hoped that keeping the Vatican’s traditional neutrality could put him in a position to broker a cease-fire or peace. But questions about his failure to call out Russia’s invasion, and pressure from Ukraine, eventually led him to condemn Russia. |
| Francis, who said the Vatican had previously played a role in facilitating prisoner swaps between the sides, now seeks to be a protagonist in a peace process. As the war enters its 15th month, both the Russians and Ukrainians are preparing spring offensives, and few believe a negotiated peace is imminent. |
| In other news from the war: |
| Hundreds of Russian men face criminal charges for becoming war refuseniks since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year. Some dodge the draft, while those already serving desert or refuse orders to redeploy in Ukraine.An attack on an oil depot in Russia-occupied Crimea that sparked a huge fire was part of Ukraine’s preparations for a counteroffensive, a Ukrainian military spokeswoman said. |
