Pope says Ukraine invasion violates ‘self-determination of peoples’

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – The invasion of Ukraine is a violation of a country’s right to self determination, Pope Francis said in a message published on Tuesday.

The pope spoke of the war in Ukraine in a message for the Roman Catholic Church’s World Day of the Poor, which will be marked in November.

“The war in Ukraine has now been added to the regional wars that for years have taken a heavy toll of death and destruction,” Francis says in the message.

“Yet here the situation is even more complex due to the direct intervention of a ‘superpower’ aimed at imposing its own will in violation of the principle of the self-determination of peoples,” he said.

(Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Andrew Heavens)