Moscow negatively responds to Zelensky's conversation with the Pope about the release of Ukrainian prisoners
Pro-Russian and Russian publications responded with negative publications to the telephone conversation between Volodymyr Zelensky and Pope Francis, during which the President appealed to the Pope for help in freeing Ukrainians held illegally in the occupied part of the Donbas, in the occupied Crimea and Russia.
"Spiritual Front of Ukraine", as an example of such hysteria, cites the publication of the Union of Orthodox Journalists which, reporting on the phone conversation, stressed that the UOC MP had been regularly offering the initiatives for the exchange of prisoners.
On the other hand, the Russian news agency REGNUM was profuse in negative epithets addressed to both the President of Ukraine and Pope Francis. An article titled "Does Zelensky use the Vatican or does the Vatican use Zelensky?" reveals the reason for the Russian Federation's outrage about this.
"It turns out," writes the Spiritual Front of Ukraine," that the Russians do not understand what the Vatican may have to do with the release of prisoners.
"According to the Russian Federation, only the ROC and the UOC-MP can participate in this process on the part of the Church. Volodymyr Zelensky sent a clear message that the UOC-MP will not be the only participant in the exchange of prisoners among the Churches. The Ukrainian authorities do not plan to rely entirely on a religious organization, whose control center is located in the capital of the aggressor state. Who in this situation is trying to unite society, and who is defending only the interests of their Kremlin superiors – this is the question with a more than the obvious answer," the publication writes.