World
Putin, Zelensky signal openness to talks. Albanese dismisses Russian ‘propaganda’ on Indonesian military base. Humanitarian agencies slam Israeli inquiry. By Jonathan Pearlman.
Progressive and divisive: world marks death of Pope Francis
Great power rivalry
Ukraine: Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, this week rejected a United States proposal for a deal that would grant Russia control of Crimea. Both he and Vladimir Putin, however, signalled a willingness to keep the current frontlines in place during negotiations.
Facing pressure from the White House to make territorial concessions, Zelensky told reporters on Tuesday he was open to talks with Russia on a deal to end the war but called on Moscow to first agree to a ceasefire.
Responding to a reported US proposal that would involve Ukraine recognising Russian control of Crimea, Zelensky said: “Ukraine will not legally recognise the occupation of Crimea. There’s nothing to talk about here. This is against our constitution.”
Ukraine has reportedly signalled it could agree to a ceasefire that would freeze the frontlines in the four eastern border regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, though it will not recognise Russia’s occupation of the provinces as legal. Only Luhansk is fully held by Russia, which seized Crimea in 2014.
On Wednesday, Britain hosted ceasefire talks attended by diplomats from Ukraine, France, Germany and the US. But Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio pulled out, possibly because a breakthrough was unlikely.
Putin signalled this week for the first time since the invasion that he was open to holding direct talks with Zelensky and was willing to abandon his maximalist territorial claims. Despite declaring the annexation of the four provinces in 2022, the Russian president indicated he would be willing to accept a ceasefire that recognises the current frontlines.
Speaking to Russian state television on Monday, Putin said Russia had “always looked positively on any peace initiatives”.
Putin last weekend announced a unilateral 30-hour truce for Easter. Ukraine also agreed to observe the truce. Both sides later accused each other of violating the agreement, though the number of attacks was reportedly lower than usual.
The neighbourhood
Indonesia: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese criticised Russia for spreading “propaganda” this week after Sergei Tolchenov, Russia’s ambassador to Indonesia, taunted Canberra over Moscow’s military ties with Jakarta.
In a letter to The Jakarta Post last weekend, Tolchenov rejected Australia’s concerns about a reported request by Russia to establish an air force base in Indonesia. Tolchenov said Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton were concerned about matters that “have nothing to do with Australia” and that are “happening 1300 kilometres from their territory”.
“The leaders of the two main political parties, replacing each other in power and calling it democracy, are now trying to outdo each other, heating up the situation,” he wrote.
“I would like to remind them of the words of US President Donald Trump … to the Ukrainian citizen ‘Z’: ‘You have no cards.’ ”
Dismissing the comments as propaganda, Albanese told reporters on Monday there was “no prospect” of Russia establishing a base in Indonesia.
“I’m anti-Russia,” he said. “I have no wish to help promote Russia’s propaganda messages and I would suggest that that is not in Australia’s national interest either.”
An Indonesian foreign affairs ministry spokesperson, Rolliansyah Soemirat, last week said Jakarta had not granted permission to any country to establish a military base but did not state whether Russia had made a request.
War zone
Gaza: An Israeli inquiry found an “operational misunderstanding” led to the killing of 15 emergency workers in Gaza last month, but the investigation was dismissed as invalid by humanitarian agencies.
The deaths occurred early on the morning of March 23 in the southern city of Rafah. Israeli troops initially killed two paramedics and detained a survivor before shooting at emergency vehicles that arrived to assist, killing a further 12 medics and rescue workers and a United Nations employee. The troops later buried the bodies in a mass grave.
Israel initially said the first vehicle was a Hamas police vehicle, but dispatcher records showed it was an ambulance. Israel also said the vehicles were suspicious and approached without emergency lights, but video footage from a paramedic showed the vehicles were marked and had their lights on.
The Israeli inquiry, released last weekend, said the troops believed they had encountered Hamas forces in the initial shooting and then thought the arriving vehicles were reinforcements. The troops then shot at a United Nations vehicle even though they had realised the earlier victims were unarmed paramedics.
The lead investigator, Yoav Har-Even, a retired major general, said the field commander had been dismissed for providing an “inaccurate report” and firing at a clearly marked UN truck.
“The forces acted under the strong impression they were facing an immediate threat; this was their state of mind,” he said.
The inquiry was roundly criticised by humanitarian groups.
Jonathan Whittall, a UN official in Gaza, said in a statement that the inquiry lacked “real accountability”.
“Without accountability, we risk continuing to watch atrocities unfolding,” he said.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society has called for an independent investigation into the killings.
Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson, said the report was “full of lies”.
“It is invalid and unacceptable, as it justifies the killing and shifts responsibility to a personal error in the field command when the truth is quite different,” she said.
Israel resumed fighting in Gaza on March 18 after the first phase of a ceasefire ended without an agreement on a second phase. On Tuesday, Israel launched strikes in Khan Younis and Gaza City, killing at least 17 people, according to local officials.
Spotlight: Death of Pope Francis
Vatican City: In April 2016, Pope Francis flew to the Greek island of Lesbos, which had been the transit point for about 850,000 asylum seekers escaping war-torn Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. After holding a service to bless those who had died trying to flee, he flew back to the Vatican with 12 Syrian Muslims to offer them asylum.
And so Jorge Mario Bergoglio, whose parents migrated from Italy to Argentina, defied the European Union’s policy of transferring migrants to Turkey and added a further feat of unconventionality to his record as the first Jesuit Pope, the first from Latin America and the first to take the name of Francis, the Italian saint known for his embrace of poverty (it had also been more than 1000 years since a pope had taken a unique name).
Pope Francis did not change the Catholic Church’s position on abortion, contraception, women becoming priests, celibacy for priests or same-sex marriage. But he is widely viewed as having prodded the church towards more accepting positions on doctrine and broader social issues. He called for action on climate change, apologised for sexual abuse scandals, pushed to ease Communion restrictions for divorced and remarried Catholics, and apologised for the church’s role in assimilating indigenous children. He waded into international politics, sometimes controversially: he suggested Ukraine should have “the courage of the white flag” and seek a peace deal with Russia, and that there should be an investigation into whether Israel’s military campaign in Gaza was a genocide.
Francis was also a fierce critic of Donald Trump’s demonisation and deportation of immigrants during each of the president’s two terms.
In a speech on Easter Sunday, he decried the contempt that is stirred up towards “the vulnerable, the marginalised, and migrants”.
It was his last speech. On Monday, Francis, who had been pope for 12 years, died, aged 88, of a stroke followed by a coma and cardiocirculatory collapse.
In 2021, a reporter from The Washington Post tracked down Ahmad Ramy Alshakarji, one of the Syrian migrants rescued from Lesbos. Alshakarji, a former history professor, then aged 56, was living with his family in Rome. Despite working long hours as a hospital cleaner, Alshakarji said the opportunity to leave Lesbos for Italy had been a “joy born from the womb of sadness”.
This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on April 26, 2025 as "Progressive and divisive: world marks death of Pope Francis".
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