It has had next to no exposure in Malta’s blog-sphere, normally so receptive to adulation where the head of the Catholic church is concerned, as could be seen in the ill-advised visit so soon after the election that almost was seen as part of the celebrations.

Asked during an interview what he thinks about calls for Ukraine to surrender to Russia, Pope Francis said he believes “those who have the courage to raise the white flag and to negotiate are stronger.”

The pope told the Italian-language Swiss public broadcaster RSI: “When you see that you are defeated, that things are not going well, you need to have the courage to negotiate. You are ashamed, but with how many deaths will it end? Negotiate in time, and look for some country to act as a mediator. Don’t be ashamed to negotiate before things get worse. Negotiation is never a surrender. It is the courage not to lead the country to suicide.”

Those words sparked outrage not just in Kyiv but also around the world. Ukrainian president Zelensky, pointedly without mentioning the pope by name, praised the church in his country in contrast with someone who sits 2,500 kilometres away. The Ukrainian foreign minister Kuleba said the only flag recognised by the people of Ukraine is the yellow and blue one of the country.

Writing on X (Twitter) Nathalie Tocci, former director of the Istituto Affari Internazionali and political scientist said a Ukrainian surrender would give Russia a green light for endless war. The pope’s new advice would lead not to peace, but to a dangerous escalation.

She claimed that this is not the first time the present pope has displayed overtly pro-Russian sympathies and that the Vatican’s attempt at mediation, for instance regarding the liberation of Ukrainian children kidnapped by Russia, has not been successful so far.

The pope’s words are extremely relevant, and dangerously so. First, they provide moral cover to an unabashedly pro-Kremlin line that runs deep in some quarters in the west, from Donald Trump and the Republicans in the US to the nationalist right and the populist left in Europe.

Claiming that the war can only end with Ukraine’s surrender is precisely what Putin has been saying for more than two years. The fact that a religious authority such as the pope toes the same line provides incredible political ammunition to the Kremlin and its cheerleaders in Europe and beyond.

Secondly, the pope’s words matter because they reflect views that are widespread in the global south. What the pope projects is a deep-rooted anti-westernism. This consequently taints his reading of the war, with its emphasis on Nato’s presumed culpability and the agenda of the western military-industrial complex.

The pope’s words matter, especially because he’s wrong on the past, the present and the future.

With his same reasoning the Argentinian pope should have called on Russia to surrender when its first attempt to subjugate Ukraine failed and this country recaptured about half of the territory it lost in the first few weeks of the invasion. He is perversely blaming Ukraine and the west for provoking Russia into war and totally neglecting the imperial ambition that drove Russia to invade.

As for the present, Ukraine’s present problems on the frontline come from the fact that the western military-industrial complex, so reviled by the pope, has done too little, not too much. Ukraine’s recent losses are due to a lack of manpower and especially a lack of weapons. Meanwhile Russia has replenished its military stocks and is being restocked by North Korea.

Looking to the future, the pope seems to assume that a Ukrainian surrender would put an end to the war. This is also how Donald Trump would like to see the future. But if Putin’s past behaviour is any indication – remember his past in Georgia in 2008, and Ukraine in 2014 – every time the west accommodated the Russian threat, Moscow came back to bite off a bigger piece. The pope is neglecting Russia’s military buildup.

If the world listens to the pope’s words and the west throws Ukraine under the bus, all signals point to the fact this would most probably not lead to peace in Europe but more likely it would open up the continent to an even more dangerous phrase of this unjust war.

While the rest of the world is engrossed about Kate Middleton’s muddled attempts with Photoshop and we in Malta see, perhaps correctly, corruption behind every development, there are wider issues that we are not seeing.

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