On Sunday, Pope Francis issued yet another appeal for a truce to the war in Ukraine and an end to the attacks against "exhausted populations," Belga News Agency reports.
Speaking at the end of the Regina Coeli prayer in St. Peter’s Square on the occasion of the Orthodox Easter, the Pope observed the two-month duration of the war, which began on 24 February.
Far from coming to an end, fighting has intensified he told the thousands of people assembled at the square, some of whom carried Ukrainian flags.
"On the holiest and most solemn for all Christians, we hear the deadly noise of weapons rather than the sound of bells announcing the Resurrection," said the Pope, who has called continually for peace in Ukraine and denounced the suffering of its civilian population.
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"It’s sad that arms are taking the place of words," he added, renewing his appeal for an Easter truce which, he said, would be "the least and most tangible sign of a desire for peace."
"May attacks cease so as to come to the aid of suffering people," he said.
The United Nations also called for an "immediate" truce on Sunday in Mariupol, so that some 100,000 civilians trapped in the southeastern port almost entirely under Russian control can be evacuated.
On Palm Sunday, 10 April, the Pope had already called for an Easter truce to be observed so that peace could be achieved through real negotiations. On Thursday he joined a similar appeal issued by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
