Pope Francis has said that Russia's invasion of Ukraine "may have been a result of a NATO provocation".
Pope Francis said of the Ukrainian war in particular: "It's dangerous if you only see the monstrous side of [Russia] and don't see the whole scene behind it."
The Jesuit media outlet La Civilta Cattolica published the fact that the Pope made this statement in a conversation with his editors on the 29th of last month, and the Voice of America (VOA) reported it on the 14th.
The Pope said in a conversation today that "I expressed this view by citing a comment from a head of state I met several months before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine," the report said.
The pope said the head of state that Russian President Putin met months before sending troops to Ukraine was "worried that NATO was 'barking at the Russian gates to wage war'." I read it," he said, but did not specify who the head of state was.
"He was a wise man who spoke very little," the Pope continued.
The pope condemned the brutality and ferocity in Ukraine, particularly by Russian soldiers and mercenaries from Chechnya and Syria, that "something on a global level has emerged, with no metaphysical good or evil, with elements very closely intertwined." described the Ukrainian War.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a speech on the 13th that "we will definitely liberate the Krm Peninsula" and "we will make the Ukrainian flag fly over the Krm Peninsula cities such as Yalta, Sudak and Jankoy".
Crimea is a territory of Ukraine that was forcibly annexed by Russia in 2014, and it appears that President Zelensky has publicly declared war on the peninsula.
Russia's Ministry of Defense announced on the 13th that the missile attack on Donbas, Ukraine "has used high-precision air-launched missiles to destroy weapons and military equipment, including supplies recently provided to the Ukrainian military by the United States and Western countries."
While major Western countries, including the United States, are expanding military support to Ukraine, including weapons, Russia has announced that Western-supported weapons are its main target of attack.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Olexi Rezhnikow said in an interview with The Economist on the 12th, "We need immediate help because the cost of delayed arms support is the price of Ukraine's blood. As we enter a new phase, a rift in the Western alliance is emerging,” he said.
Ukrainian presidential aide Mikhail Podolyak tweeted on the 13th, "To defeat the Russian army, we need heavy weapons to counter it." 1,000 howitzers, 500 tanks, 2,000 armored vehicles, 300 MLRSs, and 1,000 drones.”
The US will preside over the NATO Defense Ministers' Meeting in Brussels, Belgium from the 15th.
U.S. President Joe Biden first revealed Zelensky's responsibility for the war when he announced on the 10th that Ukrainian President Zelensky had not heeded US warnings of an invasion of Russia.
People's Strength Representative Lee Jun-seok met with President Zelensky on a visit to Ukraine on the 6th, and the government announced on the 8th that it would provide $1.2 million to Ukraine in cooperation with nuclear-related ministries. <Responsible for Jelensky’s ‘responsibility’ against Biden Ukraine, Lee Jun-seok $1.2 million ‘support’, see June 12, 2022)
Russian Ambassador to Britain Andrei Kelin told BBC Sunday Morning: "The Deputy Mayor said in his first statement after the withdrawal of the Russian forces that everything was clean and calm and that there were no bodies on the streets. It was fabricated evidence," he said on the 29th of last month. "
It is not our goal to kill civilians," he said. "Russian forces are targeting military installations to undermine Ukraine's military power," the US CNN reported again.
President Yoon Seok-yeol will attend the NATO Summit in Madrid, Spain on the 29th.