Kyiv, Ukraine
Reuters
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he discussed Ukraine’s peace formula in a call with Pope Francis on Thursday.
“We discussed our joint work to put Ukraine’s Peace Formula into action,” Zelenskiy said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Pope Francis shakes hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, at the Vatican, on 13th May, 2023. PICTURE: Vatican Media/Handout via Reuters/File photo
“Over 80 countries are already involved in this process at the level of their representatives. And there will be more of them,” he added.
Zelenskiy said he thanked Francis for his Christmas greetings “as well as his wishes for a just peace for all of us.”
Zelenskiy has said that Ukraine’s peace formula will next be discussed in Davos, Switzerland, but has not given a date.
As part of his peace efforts on Ukraine, the Pope has sent a special envoy, Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, to Kyiv, Moscow, Washington and Beijing.
In his Christmas Day message, the Pope called for an end to multiple conflicts, including the one in Ukraine. In November, in a renewal of his persistent calls for an end to violence in Ukraine and the Middle East, he said “peace is possible” and that “we must not resign ourselves.”
Zelenskiy said in October that he had invited Francis to Kyiv. The Ukrainian leader met privately with the Pope at the Vatican in May.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Airborne Assault Troops said on Thursday that three servicemen who Ukrainian prosecutors have said were captured and shot dead by Russian forces this month were members of the 82nd Airborne Assault Brigade.
Russia has yet to comment on the allegation, the second accusation that it has killed prisoners of war leveled against it this month by Ukrainian prosecutors.
Footage shared on social media of the alleged incident appears to show three unarmed figures collapsing from a stationary position after being fired upon. Reuters could not independently verify the video.
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The Airborne Assault Troops said unidentified enemy personnel, “acting intentionally, in violation of the laws and customs of war,” had deliberately killed the three men, whom it described as captured members of its 82nd Airborne Assault Brigade.
It said their bodies had been removed by Ukrainian authorities from the scene, previously identified as being near the village of Robotyne in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region.
The Airborne Assault Troops reshared the footage of the incident, marking three men with Ukrainian flags and placing Russian flags next to uniformed figures standing or crouching at two locations on a barren landscape some distance behind the three.
The three men are seen on their knees, hands behind their heads. At least two uniformed individuals raise what appear to be weapons from the two Russian-flagged locations and appear to open fire in the direction of the Ukrainians.
Immediately the three tumble forwards, and a man identified as a Russian soldier approaches them and appears to check for signs of life as they lie on the earth.
“This is another case of a gross violation by the aggressor country of international humanitarian law regarding the treatment of prisoners of war,” the prosecutor’s office said when it announced its investigation on Wednesday.
Ukraine on 3rd December accused Russia of committing a war crime after another video shared on social media appeared to show several soldiers shooting two surrendering military personnel who emerged from a dugout at gunpoint.
Last March, a captured Ukrainian soldier was seen being shot dead in a video after defiantly saying “Glory to Ukraine,” a phrase that has taken on special significance as a common public greeting since the start of the war.
– Additional reporting by OLEKSANDR KOZHUKHAR in Kyiv, Ukraine
