Pope Francis reportedly called for a temporary peace in Ukraine and urged the parties involved to halt the fighting in the run-up to Easter and Orthodox Easter week. The religious leader called for a two-week truce in the zone of hostilities in Ukraine, Russian news agency TASS reported on Friday citing a conversation between Leonid Sevastyanov, the leader of the World Union of Old Believers, and Pope Francis.
“Next week is the Catholic Easter week, and then there will follow the Orthodox Easter week. The Pope has just told me that in honor of this, he suggests that all hostilities in the special military operation zone in Ukraine be stopped for two weeks: for the Catholic and Orthodox Easter weeks. Starting from this Sunday and for two weeks there would be no offensives at all, everyone would stop shooting at each other and a truce would be declared,” Sevastyanov was quoted as saying by TASS.
The Old Believers’ leader reportedly went on to say that this issue was very important to the head of the Catholic church.
“Please let everyone know this,” Sevastyanov quoted Pope Francis as saying, TASS report added.
The Catholic Church celebrates Easter this year next Sunday, April 9; Orthodox Christians celebrate it a week later, on April 16.
Russia-Ukraine war: Attempts for ceasefire in recent past
On March 31, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko called for an immediate ceasefire between the two warring sides.
ALSO WATCH | Russia declares two-day ceasefire in Ukraine for Orthodox Christmas
“In terms of Ukraine, nothing is changing, the special military operation is continuing because today that is the only means in front of us to achieve our goals,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had said.
He said parts of a plan proposed by China for peace in Ukraine were “unrealisable at the moment, due to the unwillingness – or rather the inability – of the Ukrainian side to disobey their supervisors and commanders”.
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