TheCable

While kissing a battered Ukrainian flag at the Vatican on Wednesday, Pope Francis called for an end to the war and aggression by Russia.

According to AP, during his general audience at the Vatican hall, the pope held up a dirty Ukrainian flag which he said had arrived the previous day from Bucha.

He said: “This flag comes from the war, from that martyred city Bucha. Let us not forget them. Let us not forget the people of Ukraine.“

Recently, viral videos from Bucha showed the streets littered with corpses, with some having their hands tied behind their backs.

The bodies were found after Russian troops withdrew from the town.

But Russia has denied that its forces were responsible for the deaths of civilians in the town.

At the end of the general audience, the pope invited six Ukrainian refugee children to the stage and called for prayers for them and all Ukrainians.

“The recent news from the war in Ukraine, instead of bringing relief and hope, brought testimony of new atrocities, like the massacre in Bucha, even more horrendous cruelty carried out against civilians, defenceless women and children,” he said.

“They are victims whose innocent blood cries up to the sky and implores that this war be stopped, and that the weapons be silenced. Stop disseminating war and destruction.

“These children had to flee to arrive in a safe place. This is the fruit of war.”