One day it’s time to talk. But first Putin must realize that he cannot win.
It is not wrong for popes to meddle in politics. But Pope Francis arrives too soon with the white flag. Photo: Guglielmo Mangiapane / Reuters / NTB
Published: 13/03/2024 11:34
This is an editorial. The leader expresses Aftenposten’s view. The editor-in-chief and political editor are responsible for the content.
Pope Francis has been out waving the white flag. He thinks that Ukraine should have the courage to do the same. The white flag is used by those who give up the fight and lay down their arms in a war.
Negotiations are never the same as surrender, the Pope said in an interview with Swiss broadcasting on Saturday. Now that it has proved so difficult to throw the Russian occupiers out of Ukraine for so long, new and brave thinking must be done. The most important thing, as Pope Francis sees it, must be to end the war and the senseless loss of life.
The move is too naive and has not gone down well with the leadership in Ukraine. Very bad attitude. Pope Francis has also received a slap across the fingers from NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
Negotiations and intermediate solutions are things Stoltenberg has also put a lot of effort into in his life in politics. He even had a father, former Minister of Defense and Foreign Affairs Thorvald Stoltenberg, who believed that compromise was among the most beautiful words in this world.
But everything has its time.
– For Ukraine, this is not the time to capitulate. It would be a tragedy for the Ukrainians and dangerous for all of us, Stoltenberg said in an interview with Reuters.
It is not wrong for popes to meddle in politics. Pope John Paul II, former bishop of Krakow, became a major and important inspiration for the Poles’ struggle for freedom in the 1980s. He contributed to the fall of the Iron Curtain and the end of the Cold War.
Argentine Pope Francis has never been afraid to get involved in international politics. He has spoken out loud about the climate crisis, the migration crisis, the world’s economic biases.
Throughout the Ukraine crisis, he has made several attempts to talk to the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill. It has not been possible, because Kirill is not a man of peace. On the contrary, he is among the main drivers of continued war in the circle around President Vladimir Putin.
White flag is not a sign of weakness. On the contrary, the strongest is the one who has the courage to fly the white flag and ask for negotiations, Pope Francis said in his greeting to the Ukrainians. It is well intended. And in principle it sounds wise. Enemies have to talk to each other sooner or later. Otherwise, wars will never end.
But the person who is to negotiate must have a minimum measure of trust in the person with whom they are to negotiate. Putin has zero credibility as an interlocutor after ten years of warfare and tens of thousands of lives lost. He must be forced to realize that he can never achieve what he wanted with this war. For that, Ukraine needs grenades and other weapons aid, not white flags.
Unfortunately, the time is still like that.
2024-03-13 19:57:23
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