Pope Francis has said that NATO's "barking" at Russia's door may have led to Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine - and said he had offered to meet with the Russian president in Moscow.

In an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, the Pope spoke of Russia's deadly attacks on its neighbor and stressed that although it might not go so far as to say that NATO's presence in nearby countries "provoked" Moscow , it "probably facilitated" the invasion.

He condemned the "brutality" of the war and compared it to the Rwandan civil war in the 1990s, which resulted in a genocide of the Tutsi minority. In the interview, the Pope ruled out the possibility of going to Kiev at the moment: "I have to go to Moscow first, I have to meet Putin first."

The Holy See has requested a meeting between Pope Francis and Putin in Moscow since mid-March. "We have not received any response yet and we are still trying, even if I am afraid that Putin can not or does not want a meeting at this time."

The Pope has repeatedly criticized the invasion of Ukraine, avoiding mentioning the Russian president, in line with the Vatican's foreign policy of possible dialogue.