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Pope laments ‘tormented Ukraine’ on final day of Malta visit

Valletta (AFP) – Pope Francis condemned the “sacrilegious war” in Ukraine at an open-air mass in Malta on Sunday, ahead of a visit to a migrant centre preparing to take refugees fleeing Russia’s invasion.

He was speaking amid international outrage over the killing of civilians near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, after officials in Bucha said nearly 300 bodies had been found in mass graves after Russian forces withdrew.

“Let us pray for peace, thinking of the humanitarian tragedy of tormented Ukraine, still under the bombardments of this sacrilegious war,” Francis said after mass to an estimated crowd of about 12,000 worshippers in Floriana, outside Malta’s capital of Valletta.