Ukraine criticises Pope for calling Russia's Darya Dugina an 'innocent victim of war'

The Ukrainian ambassador to the Vatican City criticised Pope Francis for his statement where he described deceased Russian propagandist Darya Dugina as an "innocent victim of war." Dugina, the daughter of a pro-Kremlin ideologue Alexander Dugin, commonly known as "Putin’s brain", was killed in a car explosion on August 20. According to media reports, the explosion occurred outside of Moscow when she was driving her father's car after returning home from a literary and musical event. 

On Wednesday, Pope Francis spoke about the war in Ukraine during a general audience, and lamented that innocents on both sides were paying the price. However, Ukrainian ambassador Andrii Yurash termed the Pope's statement regarding Dugina as  "disappointing." 

"Today's speech of the Pope was disappointing and made me think about many things: you can't talk about the aggressor and the victim, the rapist and the raped in the same categories; how can you call one of the ideologues of Russian imperialism an innocent victim? She was killed by the Russians as a sacrificial victim and is now on the shield war [sic],"  Yurash wrote on Twitter. 

Pope Francis calls for restoration of peace in Ukraine

During his speech, the Pope termed orphans in Ukraine and Russia as "innocents" who are suffering as a result of the cruelty of war on both sides. "The madness of war! I think of that poor girl blown up by a bomb under her car seat in Moscow. The innocent pay for the war, the innocent! Let us think about this reality and say to each other: war is madness," he said as per the Vatican News. He demanded that serious action be taken to restore peace in Ukraine where people have been suffering for the last six months. 

It should be mentioned here that Wednesday, August 24, marked the sixth month of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. Since February 24, the largest military conflict in Europe since World War II has devolved into a gruelling war of attrition. Notably, both the warring countries also held several rounds of peace negotiations but they failed to yield the desired results. 

(Image: AP)