Pope Francis called for negotiations to stop the bloodshed in Ukraine on Christmas Day

Pope Francis called for negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in his Christmas address on Wednesday in order to put an end to the conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people since Moscow’s full-scale invasion two years ago.

Francis called for “the boldness needed to open the door to negotiation” and raised the Ukraine situation explicitly in his “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and globe) speech on Christmas Day.

The pope addressed thousands of people in the square below from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, saying, “May the sound of arms be silenced in war-torn Ukraine!” He further requested “gestures of dialogue and encounter, in order to achieve a just and lasting peace” .

When Francis, who has been pope since 2013, stated that Ukraine should have the “white flag” to negotiate a settlement with Russia, Ukrainian officials criticized him this year.

Prior to this, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had stated that peace negotiations would not take place until Ukraine’s pre-war boundaries were restored. In the weeks after Donald Trump was re-elected as the president of the United States, however, Zelenskiy has demonstrated a growing readiness to engage in discussions.

The “freezing” of the existing fighting lines and the deployment of foreign forces in Ukraine are two aspects of a diplomatic settlement that Zelenskiy brought up earlier in December. Ukraine has been urged by Russia to give up its plans to join the NATO military alliance.

Francis, who is 88 years old, demanded an end to political, social, and military crises in Lebanon, Mali, Mozambique, Haiti, Venezuela, and Nicaragua as he celebrated the 12th Christmas of his papacy.

The situation in Gaza is “EXTREMELY GRAVE.”

Francis, who last week called Israel’s military operation in Gaza “cruelty” and has recently been more critical of it, reiterated his calls for a truce in the Israeli-Hamas conflict and the release of the remaining Israeli prisoners that Hamas is holding.

“The humanitarian situation in Gaza is extremely serious,” he said, and he urged for “the doors of dialogue and peace (to) be flung open.”

According to Israeli officials, the Israeli-Hamas conflict started on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists assaulted villages in southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, primarily civilians, and capturing over 250 prisoners who were taken back to Gaza.

Authorities in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip reported that over 45,000 people, primarily civilians, have been killed in Israel’s retaliation attack, which it claims is intended to eradicate Hamas. Almost everyone has been displaced by the campaign, and a large portion of the enclave lies in ruins.

Francis declared the start of the global Catholic Church’s Holy Year, which will end on January 6, 2026, on Tuesday night, Christmas Eve. A Jubilee, or Catholic Holy Year, is seen as a period of peace, pardon, and forgiveness.

The pope declared on Wednesday that “every individual, and all peoples and nations… should become pilgrims of hope, to silence the sound of arms and overcome divisions” during the Jubilee year.

It should be a moment “to tear down all walls of separation,” according to Francis as well.

He demanded a “mutually agreed solution” to demolish the wall separating the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus from the Republic of Cyprus, which has occupied the Mediterranean island and been separated since 1974.