On Sunday, Pope Francis called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a “macabre retreat of humanity,” saying the Ukrainian people’s suffering makes him “cry.”

The Pope said, “I suffer and weep, thinking of the suffering of the Ukrainian people, and in particular of the weakest, the elderly and children. There are even terrible reports of children being expelled and deported.”

“My thoughts immediately go to Mariupol, ‘Mary’s city,’ in Ukraine,” he added.

Pope continued that it has been “barbarously attacked and destroyed.”

He went on to say that “safe humanitarian corridors” should be established for those trapped in the besieged city’s steelworks.

And “every conceivable effort should be made to silence the guns.”