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FDP defense politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann: “As a Catholic, I’m ashamed that he doesn’t do that.”

Photo: Thomas Kienzle / AFP

The FDP defense politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann has clearly contradicted Pope Francis' appeal for peace negotiations in the Ukraine war.

"Before the Ukrainian victims raise the white flag, the Pope should loudly and unmistakably call on the brutal Russian perpetrators to take down their pirate flag - the symbol of death and Satan," said the chairwoman of the Bundestag Defense Committee to the Funke newspapers Media group.

"And why in God's name doesn't he condemn the verbal, murderous incitement of Kirill I, head of the Russian Orthodox Church and ex-KGB agent, against the Ukrainian people," asked Strack-Zimmermann.

She added: "As a Catholic, I'm ashamed that he doesn't do that."

Pope: “Courage to surrender, to raise the white flag”

Pope Francis called for negotiations in view of the war in Ukraine, which has now been going on for more than two years.

"When you see that you are defeated, that things are not going well, you have to have the courage to negotiate," said the head of the Catholic Church in an interview on Swiss television.

In it, Francis is also asked about demands from Ukraine for “the courage to surrender, to raise the white flag,” which others see as legitimizing the stronger side.

To this the Pope answers in general terms: “It is a question of perspective.

But I think that the one who recognizes the situation, who thinks about the people, who has the courage of the white flag to negotiate is stronger.”

more on the subject

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Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski also showed no understanding for Francis' comments.

»To compensate, how about encouraging Putin to have the courage to withdraw his army from Ukraine?

Then peace would come immediately without negotiations being necessary,” wrote Sikorski on the platform X (formerly Twitter).

Poland is one of the most committed political and military supporters of Russia-attacked Ukraine.

The EU and NATO member has taken in almost a million refugees from its eastern neighbor.

More dissenting voices from Germany

Bundestag Vice President Katrin Göring-Eckardt also contradicted the Pope's statements.

“Nobody wants peace more than Ukraine,” said the Green politician to the Editorial Network Germany (RND).

There has been war on their territory for ten years and countless people have been killed.

However, Göring-Eckardt added: "It is Vladimir Putin who can immediately end the war and the suffering - not Ukraine.

Anyone who demands that Ukraine simply surrender is giving the aggressor what he has illegally taken and thereby accepting the annihilation of Ukraine." Göring-Eckardt emphasized: "Peace will and must be negotiated - but on equal terms."

The President of the Evangelical Church Congress 2025 in Hanover, Anja Siegesmund, told the RND: "The longing for peace must not lead to the right of the supposedly stronger one winning."

kah/dpa