Kiev slams Pope's 'white flag' call, vows no surrender to Russia

Ukraine on Sunday angrily rejected Pope Francis's call to negotiate with Russia two years into its invasion, vowing "never" to surrender after the pontiff said Kiev should "have the courage to raise the white flag".

The row over his comments came as officials in Ukraine said Russian shelling in the east had killed three people Sunday. A strike on a residential building in the eastern town of Myrnograd wounded a dozen more people, said Kiev.

Ukraine also said Moscow launched missile attacks on the northeastern Kharkiv region and sent attack drones across the centre and south of the country.

Russia, meanwhile, said one woman was killed in Ukrainian shelling of a border village.

The pope's comments this weekend fuelled anger in Kiev this weekend after he said in an interview that Ukraine should negotiate with Russia, which has seized large swathes of its territory in the offensive.

"Our flag is a yellow and blue one. This is the flag by which we live, die, and prevail. We shall never raise any other flags," Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.

He was responding to the Pope's interview to Swiss broadcaster RTS in which the Catholic leader raised the prospect of surrender — two years after Kiev has battled Russian forces on its territory.

"I believe that the strongest are those who see the situation, think about the people, and have the courage to raise the white flag and negotiate," Pope Francis said in an interview conducted in early February and broadcast on Saturday.

 WWII comparisons 

Ukrainian officials compared the statement to some of the Catholic church collaborating with Nazi Germany during World War II.

"At the same time, when it comes to the white flag, we know...