Pope Francis confirmed this in an interview with the important Jesuit magazine America that he is ready to mediate for peace between Russia and Ukraine, but for the second time he said something else and the Russians fought back harshly accusing him of “a scandalous perversion of the truth”.

Francis said the Holy See is moving in the direction of “the search for peace and understanding”.

“I even thought about going on a trip but I’ve made a decision: if I travel I’m going to Moscow and Kiev, not just one place,” he clarified.

When asked by the interviewer why he didn’t name Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Pope replied: “Because it’s not necessary, sometimes people become attached to a detail. Everyone knows my position, with Putin and without Putin, without naming him”.

“martyr city”

after these two opening gestures towards the Russian leaderthe Pope has entered into the theme of the invasion of Ukraine.

He assured that Ukrainians are “a people martyred” by “Russian cruelty”, especially by Chechens and Buryats.

“If there is a martyred people, it is because someone is martyring them. When I talk about Ukraine, I talk about the cruelest because I have a lot of information about the cruelty of the troops entering the country,” the Argentine Pope said.

He mentioned those who live in Russia, but have no Russian tradition. “There is no need to put your first and last name”, she said, referring to the Chechens, a Muslim minority, and the Buryats, an ethnic Siberian people.

It was inevitable that the Russians would shout to the sky. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the pope’s demonstrations not only show “Russophobia”, but also “a scandalous perversion of the truth”.

On Monday evening, the Russian ambassador to the Holy See, Alexander Aveev, protested in turn. He expressed his “outrage” at the “strange statements attributed to the Pope”, according to the Russian Tass news agency in Rome.

“The unity of the multinational Russian people is indestructible and no one can question it,” the ambassador to the Vatican said in a formal protest not confirmed by the authorities of the Holy See.