THE Pope asked for a face-to-face meeting with Vladimir Putin following the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine, but has yet received no reply.
The 85-year-old pontiff revealed that he had communicated to Moscow via Vatican diplomats seeking discussions with the Russian President, three weeks after the start of the war.
But Pope Francis, who made an unprecedented visit to the Russian embassy after the conflict began in February and has also spoke via telephone with Ukrainian President Volodymy Zelensky, said "we have not yet received a response and we are still insisting".
In an interview with Italy's Corriere Della Sera newspaper focused on the war in Ukraine, he said he had asked the Vatican's top diplomat to send a message to Putin, which said "that I was willing to go to Moscow".
"I fear that Putin cannot, and does not, want to have this meeting at this time," he said.
"But how can you not stop so much brutality?"
He also said "25 years ago in Rwanda we lived through the same thing" in appearing to equate the killings in Ukraine to the genocide in the African country in 1994.
Also asked about a trip to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, which Francis last month said was a possibility, the pope said he was not going yet.
"I am not going to Kyiv for now; I feel that I must not go," he said.
"First I must go to Moscow.
"First I must meet Putin. But I am also a priest, what can I do? I do what I can. If Putin would only open the door...".
Pope Francis also spoke of "an anger facilitated" perhaps, by "NATO's barking at Russia's door" that has led the Kremlin to "react badly and unleash the conflict".
"I don't know how to answer - I'm too far away - the question of whether it is right to supply the Ukrainians," he said.
"The clear thing is that weapons are being tested there.
"The Russians now know that tanks are of little use and are thinking of other things.
"This is why wars are waged: to test the weapons we have produced. Few people are fighting this trade, but more should be done."
