Moscow’s Aggression Amidst Futile Appeasement Efforts
The Vatican News portal (January 25, 2026) reports on the collapse of U.S.-brokered Ukraine-Russia peace talks in Abu Dhabi, occurring alongside renewed Russian missile and drone strikes targeting civilian infrastructure. These attacks left over a million Ukrainians without electricity amid subzero temperatures, killing at least one civilian and injuring 23 others. Despite Kyiv’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha condemning Russia’s “brutal massive strike” as a deliberate sabotage of negotiations, the article frames the conflict through morally neutral terms like “dialogue” and “humanitarian emergency,” omitting any theological or doctrinal analysis of the aggression. The report concludes with vague optimism about future talks, ignoring the systematic violation of divine and natural law inherent in Moscow’s warfare against a sovereign nation.
The Naturalistic Reduction of Warfare to “Humanitarian Emergency”
The article reduces Russia’s unprovoked aggression to a mere “humanitarian emergency,” employing language that obscures the moral gravity of intentional attacks on non-combatants. While detailing frozen residents “clutching children and pets” in Kharkiv, it avoids labeling these acts as what they are: war crimes condemned by the universal moral law. This evasion reflects the conciliar sect’s abandonment of Thomistic just-war principles, which demand unequivocal condemnation of attacks targeting civilians (Summa Theologica II-II, Q. 40, Art. 1). Pius XII’s 1939 condemnation of the Nazi invasion of Poland—”the premeditated aggression against a small, industrious, and peaceful nation”—stands in stark contrast to the current report’s sterile detachment (Summi Pontificatus, §106).
Cynical Diplomacy and the Hermeneutic of Surrender
By framing negotiations as “dialogue” while missiles strike Kyiv, the article tacitly endorses Moscow’s tactic of coercive diplomacy—an approach Pius XI denounced as “the cult of force” (Non Abbiamo Bisogno, §42). The report’s emphasis on “territorial concessions” normalizes Russia’s demand for Ukraine’s capitulation, ignoring Leo XIII’s defense of national sovereignty: “The authority of princes is sacred, and to resist it is illicit” (Diuturnum, §14). Worse, it omits any reference to Ukraine’s ius ad bellum (right to self-defense), reducing a war of survival to a transactional dispute.
Omitting the Supernatural in Favor of Materialist Compromise
Nowhere does the article invoke the Kingship of Christ over nations—a silence exposing the conciliar sect’s apostasy from Catholic social doctrine. Pius XI’s encyclical Quas Primas explicitly commands rulers to “publicly venerate and obey” Christ the King, warning that societies rejecting His reign “will lack stable foundations” (§18-19). By treating the conflict as a purely geopolitical issue, Vatican News aligns with the modernist error condemned in the Syllabus of Errors: “The State must leave the Church [and] the entire human community to continuous evolution” (Prop. 53, 57).
The False Peace of Abu Dhabi: Prelude to Greater Tyranny
The report’s optimism toward future talks ignores the conciliar sect’s decades-long failure to confront tyranny. Just as Paul VI’s Ostpolitik betrayed Eastern European Catholics to Soviet oppression, today’s “dialogue” legitimizes Putin’s expansionism. St. Augustine’s warning against “peace through capitulation” applies here: “What is peace but the tranquility of order? Order requires submission to God’s law” (De Civitate Dei, XIX.13). True peace demands Russia’s withdrawal from occupied lands and reparations for war crimes—conditions absent from the Abu Dhabi discussions.
Conclusion: The Duty to Resist the Abomination of Desolation
Vatican News’ coverage exemplifies the conciliar establishment’s moral bankruptcy. By refusing to name Russia’s actions as evil, it commits the sin of acceptio personarum (partiality) condemned by St. James (2:9). Ukrainian Catholics enduring bombardment deserve not hollow diplomatic platitudes but the Church’s militant defense of justice. As St. Pius X declared: “When the necessity of the moment imposes the obligation, it is Our right to issue commands which must be obeyed” (Vehementer Nos, §8). Until the conciliar sect repudiates its complicity in aggression, it remains an accomplice to the abomination of desolation wrought upon Christ’s faithful.
Source:
Ukraine: Peace talks end without deal as Russian strikes hit during winter cold (vaticannews.va)
Date: 25.01.2026