Pope Francis met with a group of Ukrainian refugees present in Rome to see a film about the war in Ukraine by director Evgeny Afineevsky, in a screening that also included immigrants and homeless residents of the Italian capital and diplomats.
In a symbolic gesture for the first anniversary of the Russian invasion, the Pope watched with the refugees and other guests the film “Freedom on fire: Ukraine’s fight for freedom”, a two-hour film filmed on Ukrainian soil during this year of conflict .
“Today is a year of this war. We pray for Ukraine. A war is destruction, it always diminishes us. May God make us understand this”the Pope said after the film.
A year ago the absurd war against Ukraine began. Let’s stay close to the martyred Ukrainian people who continue to suffer and ask ourselves: has everything been done to stop the war? Peace built on ruins will never be a true victory.
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex_es) February 24, 2023
As Afineevsky explained before the screening, it is a sequel to the film by the same director “Winter on fire” (2015) about the 2014 riots in Plaza de la Independencia, for which she had been nominated for an Oscar.
After the screening, Francis had a private meeting with Hanna Zaitseva, the wife of one of the Ukrainian soldiers who were taken prisoner at the Azovstal steel mill.during the siege of the town of Mariupol
He #Pope Francisco has always asked not to forget the Ukrainian people, tormented by an “absurd and cruel” conflict, and not to get used to the barbarity of weapons pic.twitter.com/tmGcWu31DP
— Vatican News (@vaticannews_es) February 24, 2023
Along with the Pope and Afineevsky were also Vatican officials such as the head of papal charity, Polish Cardinal Konrad Krajewski. The ambassadors of the United States and Ukraine to the Holy See also attended.
In 2021, Afineevsky had already made two projections inside the Vatican of his award-winning documentary “Francesco”, based on the figure of the Argentine Pope.
