Pope Leo XIV has offered the Vatican to be a potential mediator between Kyiv and Moscow in an attempt to end the full-scale invasion that has been ravaging Ukraine for over three years.
The pontiff has described the ongoing talks as “tragic” after Russian leader Vladimir Putin refused to attend in person despite calling the talks, according to Politico.
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Politico, citing Italian outlet Ansa, said the pontiff’s aide Cardinal Pietro Parolin voiced the pontiff’s openness to host direct talks between Kyiv and Moscow.
“The pope plans to make the Vatican, the Holy See, available for a direct meeting between the two sides,” Parolin told reporters at a Vatican event in Rome on Friday.
“This is all tragic because we hoped that it would be a, maybe slow, process, but with a peaceful solution to the conflict, and instead we are back at the beginning,” Parolin said “Now we will see what to do, but the situation is difficult.”
Putin initiated the ongoing talks in Turkey in response to the West’s ceasefire proposal, but the Kremlin’s low-level representation meant a ceasefire is unlikely due to the delegation’s lack of authority in such matters.
The new pontiff, who ascended to the post on May 8 as the first American to hold the position in history, has shown a more active stance in mediating wars and conflicts worldwide than his predecessor Pope Francis.
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In 2022, then known as Cardinal Robert Prevost, he criticized Moscow’s Ukraine invasion as a “real imperialist invasion” months after it started.
The pontiff also called for a “just and lasting” peace in Ukraine during his first Sunday noon blessing as pontiff, delivered from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City – his choice of words on Ukraine echoes the language of Kyiv and strikes a noticeably firmer tone than Pope Francis, who – while advocating for peace – has been criticized for his lukewarm stance on Moscow’s invasion.
The new pontiff also held a recent phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, where the latter said he invited the pontiff to make an apostolic visit to Ukraine.
On Thursday, the Pope met with the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv, where the latter presented the Pope with a symbolic painting entitled “Requiem Prayer” depicting the suffering of the Ukrainian people, according to Vatican News.
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