The wives of Azov regiment commander Denis Prokopenko Kateryna and Azov regiment fighter Arseniy Fedosyuk Yulia came to the Pope and met with him on Wednesday, Azov leader Andrey Biletsky said.
"In an effort to save their men and all the people of Azovstal, the wives are ready to go anywhere in the world and ask everyone they can for help. The whole world should be screaming about saving the fighters from Azovstal!", Biletsky wrote on Telegram.
According to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, the meeting lasted about five minutes. At the end of the audience, the wives of the fighters handed the pontiff two letters and several photographs. One of the letters is their own; the other is signed by the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), Onufry, and contains a request to Russian President Vladimir Putin to release the Azov fighters.
"He told us that he was aware of the situation and that he would pray for them and that he would do everything possible...He is our last hope...We ask the Pope and Onufry to become a third party in this war and help us initiate the procedure for their extradition. We hope that safe corridors will be established to evacuate them to a third country where they can lead normal lives," the women told reporters after the audience.
They said they asked the pontiff to talk to Putin and also to visit Ukraine.
