Pope asserts Ukraine right to defense in blasting Russia war

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis is denouncing the “perverse abuse of power” on display in Russia’s war in Ukraine. He is calling for aid to Ukrainians who he said had been attacked in their “identity, history and tradition” and were “defending their land.” Francis’ comments came in a message to a gathering of European Catholic representatives. They marked some of his strongest yet in asserting Ukraine’s right to exist as a sovereign state and to defend itself against Russia’s invasion. It came just days after Francis told the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, that the concept of a “just war” was obsolete since wars are never justifiable. Kirill insisted, meanwhile, that the Russians and Ukrainians were “a single people.”