Pope begs Putin to end Ukraine war

Pope Francis for the first time directly begged Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday to stop the "spiral of violence and death" in Ukraine, saying that the crisis was risking a nuclear escalation with uncontrollable global consequences. Francis also condemned Putin's latest annexation of parts of Ukraine as being against international law. He was making an urgent appeal "in the name of God" for an end to the conflict and said it was "absurd" that the world was risking a nuclear conflict. "My appeal goes above all to the president of the Russian Federation, begging him to stop this spiral of violence and death, even out of love for his own people," Francis said. "On the other side, pained by the enormous suffering of the Ukrainian population following the aggression it suffered, I address an equally hopeful appeal to the president of Ukraine (Volodymyr Zelensky) to be open to a serious peace proposal," he said. Francis later tweeted both the appeals to the two leaders in Russian and Ukrainian. His speech comes two days after Putin proclaimed the annexation of nearly a fifth of Ukraine.