Pope Francis says Ukraine war "perhaps somehow either provoked or not prevented"

Rome — Pope Francis has told a group of European Jesuit news editors that the war in Ukraine was "perhaps somehow either provoked or not prevented," and he cautioned against oversimplifying the conflict.

In an interview published Tuesday in the Jesuit publication "La Civilta' Cattolica," the pope said that in Russia's war on Ukraine, "there are no metaphysical good guys and bad guys, in an abstract sense." 

He said that months before the war, a head of state warned him that NATO was "barking at the gates of Russia," and that Russia would not tolerate it, which could lead to war.