Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has criticised Pope Francis for saying that Kyiv should have the “courage” to negotiate an end to the war with Russia.

The pontiff’s statement was interpreted by many as a call on Ukraine to surrender.

“In Ukraine, there were many once-white walls of houses and churches that are now scorched and ruined by Russian shells. And this speaks very eloquently about who has to stop for the war to end,” Zelensky said in his daily address.

Zelensky also praised all those who had stood up to defend Ukraine since the Russian invasion.

“This is what the church is – it is together with people, not two and a half thousand kilometres away somewhere, virtually mediating between someone who wants to live and someone who wants to destroy you, “ Zelensky said.

The pope made the comment in an interview recorded last month with Swiss broadcaster RSI, which was partially released on Saturday.

“I think that the strongest one is the one who looks at the situation, thinks about the people and has the courage of the white flag, and negotiates,” Francis said, adding that talks should take place with the help of international powers.

NATO boss says Ukraine needs weapons, not white flags. – Reuters

The Vatican later clarified that the pope supported “a truce achieved with the courage of negotiations”, rather than an outright Ukrainian surrender.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry summoned the papal nuncio on Monday to express “disappointment” with Pope Francis’ comments. The papal ambassador to Ukraine, Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, was told the pope should refrain from statements that “legalise the right of might and encourage further disregard for the norms of international law”, a statement on the ministry’s website said.

The statement said the pope “would be expected to send signals to the world community about the need to immediately join forces to ensure the victory of good over evil”.

Ukraine, it said, “seeks peace like no other state".

"This peace, however, must be fair and based on the principles of the UN Charter and the peace formula proposed by the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky.”

Zelensky’s peace plan calls for a withdrawal of Russian troops, a return to Ukraine’s 1991 borders, and due process to hold Russia accountable for its actions. Russia says it cannot hold any talks under such a premise.

The Kremlin said the pope's call for talks to end the Ukraine war was "quite understandable", but NATO's boss said now was not the time to talk about "surrender".

As the West grapples with how to support Ukraine and the prospect of a sharp change in US policy if Donald Trump wins November's presidential election, Vladimir Putin has essentially offered to freeze the battlefield along its current frontlines, a premise Ukraine rejects.

"It is quite understandable that he (the pope) spoke in favour of negotiations," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

He said Putin had repeatedly said Russia was open to peace talks.

"Unfortunately, both the statements of the pope and the repeated statements of other parties, including ours, have recently received absolutely harsh refusals."

Russia says it sent its troops across the border in February 2022 in a "special military operation" to ensure its own security. Kyiv and the West call it a brutal colonial-style war of conquest.

Moscow's offers to negotiate have invariably been predicated on Kyiv giving up the territory that Moscow has seized and declared to be part of Russia, amounting to more than a sixth of Ukraine.

Peskov said Western hopes of inflicting a "strategic defeat" on Russia were "the deepest misconception", adding: "The course of events, primarily on the battlefield, is the clearest evidence of this."

But NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said negotiations that would preserve Ukraine as a sovereign and independent nation would only come when Putin realised that he would not win on the battlefield.

"If we want a negotiated, peaceful, lasting solution, the way to get there is to provide military support to Ukraine," he told Reuters at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

Asked if this meant now was not the time to talk about a white flag, he said:

"It's not the time to talk about surrender by the Ukrainians. That will be a tragedy for the Ukrainians."

He added: "It will also be dangerous for all of us. Because then the lesson learned in Moscow is that when they use military force, when they kill thousands of people, when they invade another country, they get what they want."

Ukraine on Sunday rebuffed Francis's call to negotiate an end to the war. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the pontiff was engaging in "virtual mediation" and his foreign minister said Kyiv would never capitulate.

Zelensky, who signed a decree in 2022 ruling out talks with Putin, said last week that Russia will not be invited to a peace summit due to be held in Switzerland.