Ukraine war live: US ‘feared nuclear attack’ as Pope criticised for ‘white flag’ comment

Pulkovo airport in Saint Petersburg has resumed operations as Russian Defence Ministry said a Ukrainian drone was shot down in the neighbouring Leningrad region on Sunday.

Alexander Drozdenko, the Leningrad region’s governor, adjacent to Saint Petersburg, said on Telegram that airspace was sealed off due to the drone, which did not inflict any damage or casualties.

The airport and Rosaviatsia, the country’s aviation watchdog, did not say why the restrictions had been imposed.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, responding to Pope Francis’s call to show “the courage of the white flag” and negotiate an end to the war with Russia, said on Sunday that Kyiv would never capitulate and told the Vatican to pay special heed to its role in World War Two.

Francis made the comments in an interview made available in part at the weekend. He responded to a presenter’s suggestion by saying that when things were not going well for a party to a conflict “you have to have the courage to negotiate”.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, writing on social media platform X, said that the strong person in any dispute “stands on the side of good rather than attempting to put them on the same footing and call it ‘negotiations’”.

“Our flag is a yellow and blue one,” Kuleba wrote in English, referring to the Ukrainian national flag. “This is the flag by which we live, die, and prevail. We shall never raise any other flags.”

Kuleba also pointed to allegations that Pope Pius XII failed to take action against Nazi tyranny in World War Two.

“At the same time, when it comes to the white flag, we know this Vatican’s strategy from the first half of the twentieth century,” he wrote.

“I urge (the Vatican) to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past and to support Ukraine and its people in their just struggle for their lives.”

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday dismissed Pope Francis’s call for talks with Russia as “virtual mediation” from a distance.

Zelensky, in his nightly video address, did not refer directly to Francis or his remarks, but said the pope’s ideas had nothing to do with efforts by religious figures in Ukraine to help the country.

“They support us with prayer, with their discussion and with deeds. “This is indeed what a church with the people is,” Zelensky said.

“Not 2,500 km away, somewhere, virtual mediation between someone who wants to live and someone who wants to destroy you.”

Two more soldiers of the Georgian Legion, fighting Russian forces, have been killed in Ukraine, according to the force.

A Georgian Legion Facebook post announced the deaths of Nodar Nasirov and Giorgi Gogiashvili on Sunday.

It is unknown where on the front line they were killed.

A spokesman said: “Nodar Nasirov and Giorgi Gogiashvili soldiers of the Georgian Legion, died while performing combat duties on the front line.

“The Georgian Legion expresses its condolences to the families of the deceased. Glory to the heroes!”

Russia has appointed Admiral Alexander Moiseev as acting commander-in-chief of the Russian navy, the Fontanka news outlet reported on Sunday, citing unidentified sources.

Reuters could not immediately verify the Fontanka report which said that Moiseev, 61, currently commander of the Northern Fleet, will soon be appointed as naval commander-in-chief on a permanent basis.

Fontanka, a private news service based in St Petersburg, did not mention any reason for the appointment. It said the navy’s press service redirected its request for a comment to the defence ministry which did not respond to a request for comment.

Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov, navy commander-in-chief since May 2019, is still listed in that role on the defence ministry’s website.

Ukraine has in recent months stepped up attacks in the Black Sea and on Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.

Kyiv has reported a series of strikes, including the sinking of a large landing ship by naval drones in mid-February and a patrol ship this week. Russia has not acknowledged any such losses.

Pinchas Goldschmidt, the chief Rabbi of Moscow, witnessed first-hand the rise of Putin, writes Adam Luck. Now that he’s fled the country after criticising the Ukraine war, he has a stark warning for the West – the Russian leader has his sights set on more than just Kyiv…

When the chief rabbi of Moscow was summoned by Putin’s FSB agents to Sadovnicheskaya Street police station in 2003, they had one goal: to turn him into a Russian agent.

Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, who had been chief rabbi for the previous decade, was able to resist the Russian state in their efforts to turn him. But when Russia invaded Ukraine two years ago, his time was up.

Pulkovo airport in Saint Petersburg has resumed operations as Russian Defence Ministry said a Ukrainian drone was shot down in the neighbouring Leningrad region on Sunday.

Alexander Drozdenko, the Leningrad region’s governor, adjacent to Saint Petersburg, said on Telegram that airspace was sealed off due to the drone, which did not inflict any damage or casualties.

The airport and Rosaviatsia, the country’s aviation watchdog, did not say why the restrictions had been imposed

Ukrainian and allied officials have criticised Pope Francis for saying Kyiv should have the “courage” to negotiate an end to the war with Russia, a statement many interpreted as a call on Ukraine to surrender.

The foreign minister of Poland, a vocal ally of Kyiv, and Ukraine’s ambassador to the Vatican both used Second World War analogies to condemn the pope’s remarks, while a leader of one of Ukraine’s Christian churches said on Sunday that only the country’s determined resistance to Russia’s aggression had prevented a mass slaughter of civilians.

In an interview recorded last month with Swiss broadcaster RSI and partially released on Saturday, Francis used the phrase “the courage of the white flag” as he argued that Ukraine, facing a possible defeat, should be open to peace talks brokered by international powers.

“How about, for balance, encouraging (Russian President Vladimir) Putin to have the courage to withdraw his army from Ukraine? Peace would immediately ensue without the need for negotiations,” Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski responded with a post on X, formerly Twitter.

In a separate post, Mr Sikorski drew parallels between those calling for negotiations while “denying (Ukraine) the means to defend itself” and European leaders’ “appeasement” of Adolf Hitler just before the Second World War.

Andrii Yurash, Ukraine’s ambassador to the Holy See, said it is “necessary to learn lessons” from that conflict. His post on X appeared to compare the pope’s comments to calls for “talking with Hitler” while raising “a white flag to satisfy him”.

A Vatican spokesman later clarified that the pope supported “a stop to hostilities (and) a truce achieved with the courage of negotiations”, rather than an outright Ukrainian surrender.