Ukrainian Ambassador Regrets Pope Francis' Response To Death Of Daughter Of Russian President Vladimir Putin

Darya Dugina. (ABC News Australia YouTube Channel screenshot)

JAKARTA - Ukraine's ambassador to the Vatican on Wednesday deplored the response of Pope Francis, who called Darya Dugina, the daughter of a Russian ultra-nationalist a victim of the wrongful war, in which she was killed in a car bomb near Moscow last Saturday.

It is very unusual for ambassadors to the Vatican, to criticize the Pope in public.

"Innocent people pay for war," Pope Francis said earlier at Wednesday's general audience, in a sentence in which he referred to "the poor girl who was tossed into the air by a bomb under a car seat in Moscow".

In another part of his speech, Pope Francis called for "real steps" to end the war in Ukraine and prevent the risk of a nuclear disaster at the Zaporizhzhia power plant.

Russia blames the killing on Ukrainian agents, a charge Kyiv denies.

Earlier, in a tweet on Twitter, Ukraine's Vesar Ambassador to the Holy See of the Vatican Andrii Yurash said the pope's words were 'disappointing'.

"How is it possible to call one of the ideologues of (Russian) imperialism an innocent victim? He was killed by the Russians," he wrote.

In her Tweet, Yurash said: "cannot speak in the same category about aggressors and victims, rapists and rapes".

The Vatican did not immediately respond to Yurash's comments.

Alexander Dugin, Darya's father, had long advocated the unification of the Russian-speaking and other regions of the new Russian empire that would include Ukraine.

This ideologue is referred to as one of the close people of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The influence of Dugin, who is on the US sanctions list, over Russian President Vladimir Putin has been the subject of speculation, with some Russian observers suggesting his influence is significant and others calling it minimal.

Meanwhile, Darya Dugina, who also goes by the surname Platonova and is reported by Russian state media as 30, has widely supported her father's ideas and appeared on state TV in her own right, offering support for Russia's actions in Ukraine.

Pope Francis has called the Russo-Ukrainian war "insane". He said Ukrainian and Russian children had been killed, that "being an orphan knows no nationality".