Kyiv vows ‘never’ to surrender to Russia

Ukraine yesterday slammed Pope Francis's call to negotiate with Russia two years into its invasion, vowing "never" to surrender after the pontiff said Kyiv should "have the courage to raise the white flag".

The Catholic leader had fuelled anger in Kyiv after saying in an interview published Saturday that Ukraine should negotiate with Russia, which has seized large swathes of its territory during the war.

"Our flag is a yellow and blue one. This is the flag by which we live, die, and prevail. We shall never raise any other flags," Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on social media.

While battling its bigger neighbour, Ukraine has vowed not to give up its territory.

The Pope fuelled anger by saying: "When you see that you are defeated, that things are not working out, to have the courage to negotiate."

Kuleba called on the elderly pontiff to stand "on the side of good" and not put the opposing sides "on the same footing and call it 'negotiations'."

He also thanked Pope Francis for his "constant prayers for peace" and said Kyiv hoped the cleric would visit Ukraine.

"We continue to hope that after two years of devastating war in the heart of Europe, the Pontiff will find an opportunity to pay an Apostolic visit to Ukraine to support over a million Ukrainian Catholics, over five million Greek-Catholics and all Ukrainians," Kuleba said.

Meanwhile, Russian shelling of towns in eastern Ukraine killed three people yesterday while a Moscow strike on a residential building in the town of Myrnograd wounded a dozen, Kyiv said.

Ukraine also said Moscow launched missile attacks on the northeastern Kharkiv region and sent attack drones across the centre and south of the country.

Russia, meanwhile, said one woman was killed in Ukrainian shelling of a border village.

Moscow's invasion of Ukraine has dragged on for more than two years, with intense fighting in the east and regular attacks far from the frontline.

"Three people died as a result of today's shelling in the Donetsk region," the head of the embattled region Vadym Filashkin said on social media.

He said rescuers pulled out two bodies "from under the rubble of a house" in the town of Dobropillya, which he said Russia attacked with Iranian-made Shahed drones at night.

A 66-year-old man was also killed in the frontline town of Chasiv Yar, Filashkin said.

Further south, a Russian night-time strike on the east Ukrainian town of Myrnograd wounded a dozen people, Kyiv said.

"In Myrnograd, the number of victims of the missile attack has increased to 12 people," Filashkin said.

Myrnograd is a town in the Donetsk region around 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the frontline with Russian forces.

Local prosecutors earlier said Russia struck a residential neighbourhood with three S-300 missiles around 3:00 am.

The prosecutor's office said the strike wounded a "16-year-old boy, five women and five men aged 34 to 95" and that 17 "high rise buildings" were damaged in explosions.

Officials published photographs of destroyed cars and blackened walls of typical Soviet-era housing blocks with debris outside.

Kyiv also said Russia launched more than two dozen Iranian-made Shahed attack drones across central and southern regions, including the Kyiv region.

"As a result of combat operations, 35 'Shaheds' were shot down" over 10 regions, the air force said on social media.

It said the drones were downed over central and southern Ukraine.

Russia yesterday said Ukrainian shelling killed a woman in the border village of Kulbaki, some 10 kilometres (six miles) from Ukraine in the Kursk region.

"As a result of a direct hit from a shell, a residential building caught fire and a local woman died. Her husband had extensive burns and is now receiving qualified medical care," Kursk governor Roman Starovoyt said.

In Moscow-occupied Ukraine, Russian-installed official Denis Pushilin said Kyiv had shelled a bread factory at night in the city of Gorlovka, wounding four workers.