Texas school shooting: World leaders react to shooting in Uvalde

Leaders from around the world reacted with shock and horror after Tuesday’s shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, calling it “senseless” and “inconceivable.”

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose country has been attempting to fend off an invasion since Feb. 24, said it was “terrible, to have victims of shooters in peaceful time.”

Zelenskyy was speaking remotely during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, The Washington Post reported. He said he was “deeply saddened by the news of the murder of innocent children in Texas.”

“The people of Ukraine share the pain of the relatives and friends of the victims and all Americans,” Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter.

Zelenskyy’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, added that his country “shares the pain of our U.S. friends” as Ukraine also loses “innocent young lives” because of the war, according to the Post.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada would be mourning with Americans.

“My heart breaks for everyone affected by the horrific shooting in Texas today,” Trudeau tweeted Tuesday. “I’m thinking of the parents, the families, the friends, the classmates, and the coworkers whose lives have been forever changed.”

Pope Francis, during his weekly general audience at the Vatican, called for the end of the “indiscriminate” circulation of weapons, Reuters reported.

“I am left heartbroken by the massacre in the elementary school in Texas,” the pontiff said. “I pray for the children, for the adults killed and for their families.”

“Children and teachers were murdered in a cowardly attack in their Texas school,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on Twitter. “We share the shock and grief of the American people, and the rage of those who are fighting to end the violence.”

Appearing on the “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern expressed her condolences, three years after shootings at two mosques in Christchurch that killed 51 people.

“inconceivable.”

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“When I watch from afar and see events such as those today, I think of them not as a politician,” Ardern told Colbert, according to The New York Times. “I see them just as a mother and I’m so sorry for what has happened here. And then I think about what happened to us.

“When we saw something like that happen, everyone said, ‘Never again.’”

“Our thoughts are with the injured and the bereaved of the victims of this inconceivable massacre for which hardly any words can be found,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz tweeted.

“Israel mourns together with the American people the horrific murder of innocent children and teachers,” Israel Prime Minister Naftali Bennett tweeted.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador sent his “condolences, pain and solidarity” and a “a big hug” to the families of the victims, according to the Post.

“Just look at the surnames; they are children, grandchildren of Mexicans and it hurts us a lot,” the president said.

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