Pope calls for end to bombings in Ukraine ‘before cities reduced to cemeteries’

Pope Francis waves from the window of his studio overlooking St Peter’s Square (Gregorio Borgia/AP)

Pope Francis has decried the “barbarianism” of the killing of children and other defenceless civilians in Ukraine and pleaded for a stop to the attacks “before cities are reduced to cemeteries”.

In some of his strongest denunciations yet of the war in Ukraine, and in an apparent reference to Russia, which invaded Ukraine on February 24, the pontiff said that “there are no strategic reasons that hold up” in the face of such armed aggression.