Pope Francis alludes to Putin’s bringing ‘dark shadows of war’ to Ukraine.

ROME — Pope Francis on Saturday inched nearer to blaming President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia for the warfare in Ukraine because the pontiff arrived in Malta for a brief journey emphasizing the plight of migrants, a problem that has lengthy topped his agenda and that has been introduced once more to the fore by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Francis additionally stated in response to a reporter’s query throughout his flight to Malta {that a} doable journey to Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, was “on the desk.”

Later, in an tackle to Maltese dignitaries and officers in a frescoed authorities chamber, the pope blamed a “potentate, sadly caught up in anachronistic claims of nationalist pursuits” for casting “darkish shadows of warfare” from Europe’s east.

Francis has declined to explicitly cite Mr. Putin or Russia because the aggressor for a wide range of causes, together with Vatican hopes of taking part in an element in a possible peace settlement, and out of precaution to not endanger Roman Catholics all over the world. However on Saturday, he clearly appeared to be talking about Mr. Putin, who he stated was “scary and fomenting conflicts.”

“We had thought that invasions of different nations, savage avenue preventing and atomic threats had been grim recollections of a distant previous,” Francis added. “Nonetheless, the icy winds of warfare, which deliver solely loss of life, destruction and hatred of their wake, have swept down powerfully upon the lives of many individuals and affected us all.”

The pope’s journey to Malta — an island that Roman Catholic scriptures say welcomed the Apostle Paul with “uncommon kindness” when he was shipwrecked there on the best way to Rome — was initially deliberate for Might 2020 and was postponed due to the pandemic.

It now comes amid one other international catastrophe with Mr. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s bombing of civilians there and the displacement of tens of millions of refugees and other people inside Ukraine. Earlier than leaving Rome, the pope met with Ukrainian girls and kids who had escaped the warfare.