Pope Francis' appeal to Ukraine to "have the courage to wave the white flag" and negotiate with invader Russia to end the war "is a message of peace", according to Italy's foreign minister Antonio Tajani.
"With his words, Pope Francis is being a pontiff, that is, he has given a message of peace," Tajani said Wednesday on TV channel La 7's Coffee Break programme.
Francis' comments in an interview in Italian with a Swiss public broadcaster RTS last weekend angered Ukraine's government and caused outrage elsewhere in Europe.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba urged Francis to stand “on the side of good” and not put Russia and Ukraine “on the same footing and call it ‘negotiations’”.
Tajani however denied that the anti-western pontiff was siding with Russia in its two-year-old conflict with the former Soviet republic.
"Francis comes from the Spanish and sometimes speaking in Italian he may use idiomatic phrases with slightly different meanings, but it is very clear that the Pope wants peace," Tajani said.
"He certainly did not take Russia's side, as Cardinal Parolin has underlinedin recent days," Tajani continued.
"I interpreted his (Francis') message as an invitation to the parties to push for peace, and it is right for the pope to do this, he is not a politician but a spiritual guide for all Catholics."
The Vatican’s director of communications, Matteo Bruni, issued a statement on Saturday seeking to clarify the pope’s words.
Bruni said Francis had used the term white flag “to indicate a cessation of hostilities, a truce reached with the courage of negotiation”.
He repeated the pontiff’s call for a “diplomatic solution in search of a just and lasting peace” in what Francis called the “martyred” Ukraine.
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