Will the war in Ukraine end May 9?

While Pope Francis said in an interview just a few weeks ago that a pope doesn’t normally call out a head of state by name, and less so, a specific country, an account of this interview attributes to him some sharp statements.

But it also says there might be an end in sight for Ukraine.

"When I met [Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor] Orban, he told me that the Russians have a precise plan, and that the war will end on May 9. I sure hope so; that would explain the speed of the military operations in the last few days,” the Pontiff says. “Now the Russians have taken not just the Donbass region, but Crimea, Odessa, the ports on the Black Sea, everything,” he adds, admitting that he is “very pessimistic.”