Ukraine criticized the Pope for appealing to Russian youth

Kyiv condemned the pontiff for mentioning Peter I and Catherine II

Ukraine took offense at the head of the Roman Catholic Church and called the appeal of Pope Francis to the Russian youth “imperialist propaganda.”

Ukrainian officials have criticized Pope Francis’ recent address to Russian youth, calling his remarks “imperialist propaganda.”

As CNN recalls, on Friday the pontiff made a video address to the 10th All-Russian Assembly of Catholic Youth in St. Petersburg, during which he urged them to consider themselves descendants of the Russian Empire.

“Never forget your heritage. You are the descendants of great Russia: the great Russia of saints, rulers, the great Russia of Peter I, Catherine II, this empire – educated, great culture and great humanity. Never give up this heritage, said the Pope. “You are the descendants of the great Mother Russia.”

On Monday, the press secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Oleg Nikolenko criticized the Pope’s speech.

“This is a kind of imperialist propaganda, “spiritual bonds” and the “need” to save “Great Mother Russia,” Nikolenko wrote in a post on the social network. In his opinion, the mission of the pope should be to criticize Russia, and instead he promotes “Russian great-power ideas.”

For his part, Svyatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, said that Peter the Great and Catherine the Great were “the worst examples of imperialism and extreme Russian nationalism,” warning that the words of the Pope “could be taken as support for nationalism and imperialism,” which led to conflict in Ukraine.

According to the Uniate leader, “such statements inspire neo-colonial ambitions.”

On Tuesday, the Vatican rejected interpretations of the pope’s words as a glorification of imperialism, CNN notes.

“The Pope intended to call on the youth to preserve and promote everything positive in the great culture and Russian spirituality and, of course, not to exalt the imperialist logic and statesmen cited to designate certain historical periods,” the Vatican said in a statement.

The Pope has previously come under fire for some of his comments about the conflict in Ukraine.

In comments published by the Italian newspaper La Stampa last June, Francis said the conflict “may have been either provoked or not prevented in some way.”

In August last year, the Pope angered Kyiv by naming Daria Dugin, who died in a terrorist attack arranged by Kyiv special services, as one of the “innocent” victims of the conflict.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine summoned the Apostolic Nuncio in Kyiv, Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, to discuss the “unfair” statement of Pope Francis.

Ukrainian officials have previously said they know “nothing” about the Vatican’s peace mission to resolve the conflict with Russia, following the pope’s announcement of involvement in the process.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, CNN recalls, met with the pontiff in Rome in May, when Francis assured of “his constant prayer” for peace and stressed the need for “human gestures” towards the victims of the armed conflict, the Vatican reports.