Ukraine and Russia reported civilian deaths Sunday after drone, missile and bombing attacks that also caused a fire at a Russian oil depot and targeted Ukrainian power plants, officials said.
Ukrainian air defenses shot down 35 of 39 drones launched by Russia, Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk said, following a 4.5-hour barrage that damaged industrial sites unspecified attacks in southern Ukraine and also targeted power plants.
According to authorities, Russian strikes left at least 3 dead and 12 injured after Iranian-made Shahed drones struck homes and state offices around midnight in Dobropillya, a large Ukrainian-held town in the east of the country.
In Myrnograd, another city in eastern Ukraine, 11 civilians were injured after Russian missiles hit residential buildings overnight, the local prosecutor’s office reported, including one teenager.
He also posted photos of rubble lining the courtyard of a high-rise building, whose windows had been blown out, and of cars parked outside that appeared reduced to piles of twisted metal.
Kursk region targeted by Ukrainian fire
A woman also died in Russia’s Kursk region, bordering Ukraine, after shells fired from Ukraine set her house on fire, according to local governor Roman Starovoit, who also said the woman’s husband the woman suffered severe burns.
Starovoit also said debris from a downed Ukrainian drone had sparked a fire at an oil depot in the Kursk region. Nine Ukrainian drones targeted the Belgorod region, another southern Russian province that borders Ukraine, during the night and day of Sunday, according to the local governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov.
Later on Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry said two drones had been shot down over the Novgorod region in northern Russia, more than 1,000 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. No casualties were immediately reported.
Pope Francis at the heart of a controversy
In an interview recorded last month by Swiss broadcaster RSI and partially published on Saturday, François used the expression “the courage of the white flag” asserting that Ukraine, facing possible defeat, should be open to peace talks brokered by international powers.
Andrii Yurash, Ukrainian Ambassador to the Holy See, said he was “necessary to learn lessons” of this conflict. His tweet appeared to compare the pope’s comments to calls to “talk with Hitler” while hoisting “a white flag to satisfy him.”
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni later clarified that the pope supported “a cessation of hostilities (and) a truce obtained thanks to the courage of negotiations“, rather than an outright surrender of Ukraine. Mr. Bruni said the journalist questioning Mr. François had used the term “white flag” in the question that sparked the controversial remarks.
“I think the strongest is the one who looks at the situation, thinks of the people and has the courage of the white flag, and negotiates” Francis said, when asked to comment on the debate between those who say Ukraine should agree to peace talks and those who argue that any negotiations would legitimize Moscow’s aggression.
Kyiv rejects any negotiations
Kyivv remains firm on not engaging directly with Russia in peace negotiations.
Throughout the war, Francis attempted to maintain the Vatican’s traditional diplomatic neutrality, but this was often accompanied by apparent sympathy for Russia’s stated reasons for invading Ukraine, as when he noted that NATO “barked at Russia’s door” with its expansion towards the east.
While the pope has spoken in the past about the need for negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow, the RSI interview appears to mark the first time he has publicly used terms such as “White flag” Or “defeated” speaking of the war.
In the RSI interview, François insisted that “negotiations are never a capitulation.
“When you see that you are defeated, that things are not going well, you must have the courage to negotiate“, did he declare.
Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, said Sunday that the Ukrainians had no intention of surrendering.
“Ukraine is injured, but it is not defeated! Ukraine is exhausted, but it is standing and it will last. Believe me, it does not occur to anyone to surrender. Even where there is fighting today: listen to our people in Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, Kharkiv, Sumy“, Mr. Shevchuk said during a meeting with Ukrainians in New York. He mentioned the regions that have suffered heavy artillery and drone attacks from Russia.
ADVERTISEMENTMr. Shevchuk also spoke of the brutality of the invasion of Moscow, referring to the nearby city of Kyiv where the Russian occupation left hundreds of civilians dead in the streets and in mass graves. He claimed that without the fierce resistance of Ukrainians when Russian forces marched on the capital in February 2022, the horrific scenes seen in Bucha would have been “only an introduction”.
During the Angelus prayer on Sunday, from the window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, Francis said he was praying “for peace in tormented Ukraine and in the Holy Land.”_
He added : “May the hostilities which cause immense suffering to the civilian population cease as quickly as possible.“.
