Pope calls for end to bombings in Ukraine ‘before cities reduced to cemeteries’

Pope Francis has decried the “barbarianism” of the killing of children and other defenceless civilians in Ukraine and pleaded for a stop to the attacks “before cities are reduced to cemeteries”.

In some of his strongest denunciations yet of the war in Ukraine, and in an apparent reference to Russia, which invaded Ukraine on February 24, the pontiff said that “there are no strategic reasons that hold up” in the face of such armed aggression.

Francis told about 25,000 people gathered in St Peter’s Square in Rome for his customary Sunday noon appearance that Mariupol, the southern Ukrainian city which “bears the name” of the Virgin Mary, has “become a city martyred by the heartbreaking war that is devastating Ukraine.”

“In the name of God, I ask: ‘Stop this massacre’,” Francis said, prompting applause from the pilgrims, tourists and locals, some of whom held Ukrainian flags, in the square.

Francis prayed for an end to the bombings and other attacks and for ensuring that humanitarian corridors “are safe and secure”.