Pope Francis on Saturday implicitly criticised Russian President Vladimir Putin over his invasion of Ukraine during a speech in the Maltese capital Valletta.

He also confirmed to reporters that he is considering a visit to the capital Kyiv after receiving invitations from both the city’s mayor, and from the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Without explicitly mentioning Putin or the war in Ukraine, the pope touched on “the wind blowing from the east of Europe,” according to the Vatican’s news agency Vatican News.

“The icy winds of war, which bring only death, destruction and hatred in their wake, have swept down powerfully upon the lives of many people and affected us all,” Francis said, adding that “once again, some potentate, sadly caught up in anachronistic claims of nationalist interests, is provoking and fomenting conflicts, whereas ordinary people sense the need to build a future that will either be shared or not be at all.”

The pope had previously called the war in Ukraine a “massacre,” and “unacceptable armed aggression.”

https://www.politico.eu/article/pope-lashes-out-at-potentate-putin-over-anachronistic-claims-on-ukraine/