TUESDAY, MAY 24 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A
War in Ukraineagainst the people of Russia, with
a bold letter Z crossing out all
hopes and prospects for a prosper-
ous free society in our country.”
The scathing letter is one of the
most high-profile critiques of the
war — and its architects — to come
from within the Russian govern-
ment. Russian President Vladimir
Putin has made it clear that dis-
sent won’t be tolerated, saying in
March that the Russian people can
distinguish “true patriots from
scum and traitors.”
Anatoly C hubais, Putin’s special
representative on sustainable de-
velopment, resigned and left Rus-
sia in March but did not publicly
comment on his reasons for de-
parting.
Russian officials have yet to
comment on the case. But critics of
the war can face punishment un-der laws that make it a crime to
spread “false information” about
the Russian military, including by
calling the war a war, rather than a
“special operation” — Putin’s pre-
ferred term.
Reached by phone by the Asso-
ciated Press on Monday, Bondarev
confirmed that he had handed in
his resignation in a letter ad-
dressed to Ambassador Gennady
Gatilov. He told the AP he had no
plans to leave Geneva.
Bondarev took direct aim at
Russia’s ruling class. “Those who
conceived this war want only one
thing — to remain in power for-
ever, live in pompous tasteless pal-
aces, sail on yachts comparable in
tonnage and cost to the entire
Russian Navy, enjoying unlimited
power and complete impunity,” he
wrote.“To achieve that they are willing
to sacrifice as many lives as it
takes,” the letter continued.
“Thousands of Russians and
Ukrainians have already died just
for this.”
The final section of his letter
calls out the ministry where he
worked, singling out Russian For-
eign Minister Sergei Lavrov as an
example of the degradation of
Russian diplomacy.
Lavrov, he wrote, “went from a
professional and educated intel-
lectual, whom many my col-
leagues held in such high esteem,
to a person who constantly broad-
casts conflicting statements and
threatens the world (that is, Rus-
sia too) with nuclear weapons!”
Bondarev’s very public resigna-
tion led to calls for other Russian
officials to follow suit.“Boris Bondarev is a hero,” said
Hillel Neuer, executive director of
U.N. Watch, a Geneva-based non-
governmental organization, who
circulated a copy of the Russian
diplomat’s letter on Twitter. “We
are now calling on all other Rus-
sian diplomats at the United Na-
tions — and worldwide — to follow
his moral example and resign.”
Bondarev’s letter closed with a
farewell to the ministry — and a
nod to his rather precarious state.
“The Ministry has become my
home and family. But I simply
cannot any longer share in this
bloody, witless and absolutely
needless ignominy,” he wrote, add-
ing, “Job offers are welcome ....”Annabelle Timsit in London and Robyn
Dixon in Riga, Latvia, contributed to
this report.BY EMILY RAUHALAA diplomat at Russia’s mission
to the United Nations in Geneva
has resigned over the war in
Ukraine, writing that he has never
been “so ashamed” of his country,
in a rare public rebuke of the war
from within the Russian govern-
ment.
In a letter circulated to col-
leagues in Geneva and posted on a
LinkedIn account in his name as
well as on Facebook, Boris Bond-
arev, counselor at the Permanent
Mission of the Russian Federation
to the United Nations, said he had
left the civil service Monday.
“For twenty years of my diplo-
matic career I have seen different
turns of our foreign policy, but
never have I been so ashamed of
my country as on February 24 of
this year,” he wrote, referring to
the date the invasion was
launched.
“The aggressive war unleashed
by Putin against Ukraine, and in
fact against the entire Western
world, is not only a crime against
the Ukrainian people, but also,
perhaps, the most serious crimeRussian diplomat
resigns over invasion
has the right to defend itself,”
Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the
Vatican’s de facto foreign minister,
said in a recent TV interview.
The pope’s most criticized effort
amid the war was aimed at sym-
bolic peacemaking — having a
Ukrainian and a Russian woman
carry a cross together on Good
Friday. Originally, the women
were supposed to recite a short
passage, saying: “Why have you
forsaken us? Why have you forsak-
en our peoples?” But many Ukrai-
nians said such a message would
wrongly put Ukrainians and Rus-
sians on equal footing as victims of
the war. Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the
major archbishop of the Ukraini-
an Greek Catholic Church, called
the idea “inappropriate.”
The recitation was ultimately
scrapped — a decision the pope
attributed to a conversation he
had with Polish Cardinal Konrad
Krajewski. Francis acknowledged
in the Corriere interview that
Ukrainians had been “outraged”
by the plan, yet he then suggested:
“They are very touchy, the Ukrai-
nians, maybe because they were
defeated and demeaned after the
Second World War.”
There has been a series of cri-
tiques of the pope’s approach, in-
cluding from figures far removed
from traditionalist circles.
In one of the most direct, Gio-
vanni Maria Vian, a former editor
of the Vatican’s newspaper, told
Spanish outlet La Vanguardia that
Francis risked putting the HolySee in a “historic mess,” based on
his effort to “show that he is nei-
ther on one side nor the other.”
Vian noted pointedly that Pius XII
is remembered by many histori-
ans for not being vocal enough
about the evils of Nazism.
For Francis, perhaps the most
personally delicate aspect of the
war is his relationship with Patri-
arch Kirill, head of the Russian
Orthodox Church, who has be-
come one of the war’s most promi-
nent backers. He met with Kirill in
Havana in 2016, a move aimed at
repairing centuries of divisions
since the split of Eastern Ortho-
doxy from Western Christianity.
A second meeting, scheduled
for June in Jerusalem, has been
called off, the pope said, because
“it could send the wrong message.”
By his account, he warned Kirill
over Zoom not to become “Putin’s
altar boy” and justify the war.
John Allen, editor of the Catho-
lic publication Crux, noted in an
op-ed that the various papal state-
ments throughout the war “seem
almost deliberately calculated to
keep people guessing.” He con-
nected some of the uncertainty to
the nature of Francis — a non-
European pope who’s never
seemed inclined to following the
conventions of Western powers.
Allen wrote that Francis has been
able to open doors with the Ortho-
dox world, and in the long view of
the church, few things matter
more to popes than the “quest for
Christian unity.”BY CHICO HARLAN
AND STEFANO PITRELLIvatican city — In the nearly
three months since Russia
launched its invasion of Ukraine,
Pope Francis has spoken repeated-
ly about the suffering of Ukraini-
ans. He’s called the war “cruel and
senseless” and kissed the Ukraini-
an flag. Last week, he met with
Ukrainian women who said their
husbands were defending the be-
sieged Mariupol steel plant.
But the pope’s messaging about
the war, even to some supporters,
has also been head-scratching.
He has conspicuously avoided
condemning Russian President
Vladimir Putin as the aggressor.
He has criticized the West’s sanc-
tions and defense spending. And
in an interview published this
month by an Italian newspaper,
Francis appeared to echo a Krem-
lin talking point, describing the
“barking of NATO at Russia’s
door” as one of the triggers for
Putin’s wrath.
For Francis, 85, the war has
become a second epochal event,
after the pandemic, that has come
to define the agenda of his pontifi-
cate. And while he was widely
recognized for his clear-eyed take
on the coronavirus — the isolation
it engendered, t he dangers of ineq-
uitable vaccine distribution —
Francis has spurred a debate with-
in the church about his approach
to the war and whether he is being
too cautious toward Russia and
too bent on maintaining ties with
the Russian Orthodox Church.
“There are people, like me, who
think how he has acted so far is not
enough,” said Thomas Bremer, a
theologian at the University of
Münster, who argued that both
Russia and the Russian church
have become too compromised to
merit an attempt at maintaining
good relations. “There is no ‘busi-
ness as usual’ possible right now. It
can’t be like it was six months ago.”
Defenders of Francis’s strategy
say the pope is maintaining a neu-
trality that has long been at the
center of Holy See diplomacy.
Francis has said it’s not the role of
a pontiff to call out a head of state.
And in contrast to World War II,
when Jewish communities ac-
cused the church of turning a
blind eye, Francis is highlighting
the suffering that is happening.
The pope has positioned him-
self in a way that could, in theory,
make the church a credible player
in any mediation — somethingPope’s refusal to rebuke
Putin prompts debate
Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelensky has said would be “ap-
preciated.”
“He’s neither acting like Putin,
calling other people Nazis, nor like
Biden, saying that Putin should
go,” said Marco Politi, a papal biog-
rapher, who argues that Francis is
wisely avoiding making the con-
flict personal.
Andrii Yurash, the Ukrainian
ambassador to the Holy See, said
in an interview that he feels the
Vatican is “doing everything possi-
ble to build peace.”
In a more critical telling,
though, Francis is misperceiving
the war and squandering some of
his moral authority in a conflict
where religion and Christianity
are adjacent to the politics andfighting.
Though Catholic teaching has
long held that countries have the
right to defend themselves under
certain circumstances, the pope’s
statements have been vague
enough to leave Catholics uncer-
tain about whether he thinks
Ukraine’s defense is justified.
Francis said in March that wars
are “always unjust.” In his inter-
view this month with the Corriere
della Sera, he was hesitant about
whether it is appropriate to send
weapons to Ukraine. “I don’t
know,” he said, going on to decry
the production and sale of arms.
It has been left to other church
leaders to suggest that Ukraine is
morally justified in using arms
against Russian forces. “UkraineGREGORIO BORGIA/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Two nurses, from Ukraine and R ussia, hold a cross during a
procession presided over by Pope Francis in Rome on Good Friday.Kellyanne ConwayFormer Senior Counselor to President TrumpAuthor, “Here’s the Deal: A Memoir”Tuesday, May 24 at 3:00 p.m.The former senior counselor to President Trumpgives an insider’s account of her four years inthe Trump White House, the 2020 election andher professional and personal highs and lows.To register to watch, visit:wapo.st/conwaymay24 or scan codebelow with a smartphone camera:Listen wherever podcasts are available.@POSTLIVE #POSTLIVE