section_path: International diplomatic role/Russia and Ukraine
section_name: Russia and Ukraine
paragraph_text: Russia and Ukraine
  
  Following the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, Francis visited the Russian embassy in Rome, an unprecedented action. He called Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to express "sorrow" as the Vatican worked to find "room for negotiation" to end the war. The day after the invasion began in February 2022, Francis assured Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the major archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, that "he would do everything he can to help end the Ukraine conflict". During 27 February 2022 Angelus address, Francis called for peace, saying, "Silence the weapons!" At a September 2022 interfaith event in Kazakhstan, Francis urged Patriarch Kirill not to become an "altar boy" of Putin's.
  
  Throughout the war, Francis had called for an end to armed conflict. Initially, he avoided specific criticism of Russia and President Putin, frustrating many Ukrainians. Later, he described Ukraine as "martyred" and prayed for the victims of Russian aggression but still did not directly criticize Putin or the Russian government. His statements aligned more with countries like Brazil, India, and China rather than the US and Europe—a stance some attribute to his distrust of America. Francis warned against what he called a "simplistic good versus evil perception of the conflict", saying that a world leader who he did not name told him that NATO was "barking at the gates" of Russia, which led him to believe that the conflict was "somehow either provoked or not prevented." These remarks damaged the Vatican's standing as a mediator in the conflict because supporters of Ukraine saw them as echoing Russian narratives about the war.
  
  Francis's blanket denunciations of arms transfers and the weapons industry seemed to condemn Western military aid to Ukraine. In a September 2022 press conference, seven months into the war, Francis said that it was "licit" and justified for Ukraine to defend itself but called for a negotiated settlement (saying that there must be "dialogue with any power that is at war, even if it is with the aggressor" and even when "it stinks"). He also suggested that arms transfers to Ukraine were "a political decision which it can be moral, morally acceptable, if it is done under conditions of morality." He later said that Ukrainians were a "noble" people and recounted Cardinal Konrad Krajewski 's reports of the "savage acts, the monstrosity, the tortured bodies" inflicted upon Ukraine.
  
  Francis's stances were rooted in part in his hope that the Vatican could broker a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia, a possibility that analysts viewed as extremely unlikely. He dispatched two high-ranking Vatican officials—Cardinals Krajewski and Michael Czerny —as envoys on several trips to Ukraine in 2022. which was considered a highly unusual move of Vatican diplomacy. In March 2022, Francis consecrated both Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Francis said in April 2023, during a trip to Budapest, that he was working on a secret "mission" to bring peace and return Ukrainian children abducted by Russia. However, Francis's efforts to position the Vatican as a mediator have continuously failed.
  
  In early October 2022, Francis for the first time directly appealed to Putin to halt the "spiral of violence and death" in Ukraine. In the same speech, Francis asked Ukrainian president Zelenskyy to be open about "serious peace proposals" while recognizing that Ukraine had suffered an "aggression" and saying that he was "pained about the suffering of the Ukrainian people".