CASTEL GANDOLFO: Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday called for a global truce on Christmas Day, expressing \u201cgreat sadness\u201d that \u201capparently Russia rejected a request\u201d for one.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am renewing my request to all people of good will to respect a day of peace \u2014 at least on the feast of the birth of our Savior,\u201d Leo told reporters at his residence in Castel Gandolfo near Rome.<\/p>\n
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and has repeatedly rejected calls for a ceasefire saying it would only give a military advantage to Ukraine.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmong the things that cause me great sadness is the fact that Russia has apparently rejected a request for a truce,\u201d the pope said.<\/p>\n
Referring to conflicts in general, Leo said: \u201cI hope they will listen and there will be 24 hours of peace in the whole world,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Ukraine on Tuesday pulled out troops from a town in the east of the country after fierce battles with Russian forces as relentless strikes by Moscow killed three civilians and cut power to thousands in freezing winter temperatures.<\/p>\n
There was no sign of an imminent breakthrough after top negotiators from both Russia and Ukraine were in Miami last weekend for separate meetings with US officials seeking a deal to end almost four years of fighting.<\/p>\n
Pope Leo met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier this month.<\/p>\n
Asked if he would accept Zelensky\u2019s invitation to visit Ukraine, Leo later said \u201cI hope so,\u201d but cautioned it was not possible to say when such a trip would be possible.<\/p>\n
He also said that seeking peace in Ukraine without European diplomatic involvement was \u201cunrealistic\u201d and warned US President Donald Trump\u2019s proposed peace plan risked a \u201chuge change\u201d in the transatlantic alliance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CASTEL GANDOLFO: Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday called for a global truce on Christmas Day, expressing \u201cgreat sadness\u201d that \u201capparently Russia rejected a request\u201d for one. \u201cI am renewing my request to all people of good will to respect a day of peace \u2014 at least on the feast of the birth of our Savior,\u201d …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":91468,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91447"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91469,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91447\/revisions\/91469"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}