AJACCIO /Corsica, France/, December 15. /TASS/. Pope Francis has raised his prayer to the Holy Mother of God asking for pace for the Ukrainian and Russian peoples.

"They are brothers, cousins. Let them come to an understanding! War is always a defeat. Peace to the whole world!," he said at the end of his Sunday Angelus Prayer during his Apostolic Journey to Corsica.

He also called for peace in the Holy Land, namely in Palestine, Israel, as well as in Lebanon, Syria, and the entire Middle East.

Before his Apostolic Journey, he sent a letter to his nuncio in Moscow, where he touched upon the issue of the Ukrainian conflict, which is bringing "so much suffering." A moth prior, he sent a letter to his nuncio in Kiev.

Some year and a half ago, Pope Francis appointed Cardinal Mateo Zuppi as his peace envoy for Ukraine. In October, he paid his second visit to Moscow.