Pope prays for Christmas truce in Ukraine

Pope Francis called for a ceasefire in all war zones in his Sunday prayer on Christmas Eve, condemning the cruelty of bombing schools and hospitals in Ukraine and Gaza.

Source: The Pope's speech was quoted by the AP news agency, as reported by European Pravda

Details: The pontiff wished that "weapons fall silent and the Christmas carols ring out".

"Let us pray that at Christmas there will be a ceasefire on all war fronts, in Ukraine, in the Holy Land, throughout the Middle East and throughout the world," the Pope said.

Francis, as he often does, recalled Ukraine's suffering, which continues to be plagued by attacks on cities that "sometimes damage schools, hospitals, and churches."

He also expressed his pain when speaking about Gaza, "of such cruelty, to the machine-gunning of children, to the bombing of schools and hospitals."

Background:

• Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán recently stepped up his efforts to establish a "Christmas truce" between Ukraine and Russia.
• Ukraine's Foreign Ministry called on Hungary to refrain from manipulating the war in Ukraine, in particular with regard to the proposal for a Christmas truce.
• Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi stressed that "there is no real "Christmas truce" on the table" and that the alleged proposals are "just a PR stunt by the Hungarian side."
• Tensions between Kyiv and Budapest escalated after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán called Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin last week.
• Afterwards, Orbán said that he had proposed a ceasefire and a large-scale prisoner-of-war swap between Kyiv and Moscow for Christmas but claimed that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had rejected the idea.
• Kyiv emphasised that it first learned of the "truce" proposal from media reports, as the Hungarian side had not communicated it directly.
• Earlier, President Zelenskyy criticised Orbán’s attempts to present himself as a "mediator" in the "settlement" of the Russo-Ukrainian war.

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