Before the faithful who gather at the Vatican every Wednesday, the Supreme Pontiff called for an end to the conflict in that nation “and in other countries where they have been suffering wars for so long”, among which he cited Syria and Yemen.

“War is madness,” Francis said, adding that those who profit from it and from the arms trade “are criminals who kill humanity”.

“I think of so much cruelty, of so many innocent people who are paying for that madness,” he said, referring to the children who suffer, because “orphans have no nationality: they have lost a father or a mother”.

“I think of the poor girl who was bombed under the seat of a car in Moscow,” he said, referring to the recent murder of Daria Dugina in Russia, adding that the innocent pay for the war, the innocent!” .

ef/ro/ort