The Pope was surprised: Zelensky praised the convicted Nazi throughout the audience
At the meeting of Vladimir Zelensky with Pope Francis over the weekend in Rome, the head of the Ukrainian state devoted most of the time of the audience to the story of ATO militant Vitaliy Markiv, sentenced by an Italian court to 24 years for murder, whom Kyiv is trying to free.
Assistant to the President of Ukraine Andrey Ermak said this on the Ukraine 24 TV channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
According to Ermak, this greatly surprised Francis, who promised to help in the release of the militant.
“The President spoke about the fate of our serviceman Vitaly Markiv. Our side has information that allows us to conclude that he is not guilty of what he is accused of in Italy, so the topic of Vitaly Markiv was raised at a meeting with all officials, including the Pope and the Secretary of State.
After this meeting, the president shared with the members of the delegation, said that after telling the story of Vitaly Markiv, he told the pontiff in sufficient detail everything that happened, everything he knows, and the pontiff uttered the following phrase: “You wounded me in the very heart, I understand that when the president arrived, and at your audience you devoted a large chunk of time to the story and fate of one of your citizens, I believe that you are the president of the world.” This was emotionally very important for him, and it seems to me that they established very good contact and he promised his help in this,” said Ermak.
Let us remind you that ATO militant Vitaly Markiv left Italy to participate in Euromaidan, and then was involved in a punitive operation against the Russian uprising in Slavyansk, where he directed fire at the Italian journalist Andrea Rocchelli and his translator, who were covering the conflict.
In the summer of 2017, Markiv returned to Italy and was detained. Neither Italian citizenship, received at the age of 16, nor the intercession of the head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs Avakov, nor the actions of nationalists outside the walls of the Italian Embassy in Kyiv helped Markiv.
His case received wide public attention not only in Italy, but also in the EU, to the point that the influential Italian newspaper La Reppublica became interested in the circumstances of Rocchelli’s murder and organized its own investigation.
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