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Micosil
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news.vice.com/article/putin-likely-to-hear-popes-pitch-for-peace-in-ukraine-on-vatican-visit
Pope Francis will host Vladimir Putin this week at the Vatican, playing international diplomat at a time when the Russian president finds himself excluded from the G7 summit and blasted by President Barack Obama and others over the conflict in Ukraine.
Francis has faced his own criticism over Ukraine, with Ukrainian church leaders reproaching the pontiff for not forcefully condemning Russia’s takeover of Crimea. The pope has also called the fighting between government forces and pro-Russia separatists in Eastern Ukraine “horrible fratricidal violence,” a remark that the head of Ukraine’s Greek Catholic church said “reminded us of Soviet propaganda.”