Pope Francis holds the weekly general audience, in Paul VI hall at the Vatican, August 9, 2023. You are heirs of the great Russia - the great Russia of the saints, of kings, the great Russia of Peter the Great, of Catherine II, the great Russian empire, cultured, so much culture, so much humanity. An editorial on Italy's Il Sismografo website, which specialises in Catholic affairs, called the pope's words "odd" at a delicate moment in history. Pope Francis is a Jesuit. The comment prompted Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to summon the Vatican's ambassador in Kyiv to protest, saying the pope's words were "unfair" and had "broken Ukraine's heart".

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Persons: Pope Francis, Paul VI, Peter the Great, Vladimir Putin, Francis, Catherine II, Russia, Oleg Nikolenko, Nikolenko, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, Italy's, Catherine, Catherine the Great, Pope Clement XIV, Last, Putin, Tsar Peter the Great, propounding, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Nexta, Darya, Dmytro Kuleba, Ron Popeski, Tomasz Janowski, Alex Richardson Organizations: Vatican, Handout, REUTERS, CITY, Kremlin, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Facebook, Rite Catholic Church, Ukrainian, Thomson Locations: Ukraine, St . Petersburg, Russia, Crimea, Russian, Estonian, Belarus, Poland, Lithuania, Moscow, Kyiv