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(Rome) – Pope Leo XIV has offered the Vatican as a venue for peace talks, in a bid to help end the war between Russia and Ukraine. Reports say the pope made the suggestion after a recent peace summit in Istanbul, Turkey — which failed to bring together Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russia President Vladimir Putin.
US President Donald Trump also declined to join the Turkey summit, and then he suggested that Putin avoided the talks because POTUS wasn’t going to be there. The Holy See expressed sorrow at how “tragic” the ongoing war is between Russia and Ukraine. The pope’s top diplomat, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, spoke to reporters at an event in Rome on Friday and said: “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. Now we will see what to do, but the situation is difficult.”
Pope Leo XIV has made it clear achieving a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine is a top priority of his papacy. Last weekend, he and Zelenskyy spoke over the phone. During his first Sunday blessing in St. Peter’s Square, the pontiff noted the “suffering of the beloved Ukrainian people.” During later remarks he called on both Putin and Zelenskyy “with all his heart” to negotiate. And he added “those who make history are the peacemakers.”
