Pope Leo XIV confirmed this Tuesday that the Vatican is willing to participate in the peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, as he advanced in recent days to President Volodymyr Zelensky and officials from United States.
Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, was the one who contacted the Holy Father in the last few hours, to “address the next steps to be taken to build a just and lasting peace in Ukraine”, at the request of Donald Trump and other European allies, with whom she spoke earlier.
Thus, in the contact, Leo XIV reiterated to the leader the “availability of the Holy See to host the negotiations”, to which the Government of Italy “expressed its deep gratitude for the openness and the incessant commitment to peace”.
The Vatican’s offer became known days ago, when the Pope received Zelensky, after the Mass at the beginning of his pontificate.
“The martyred Ukraine finally awaits negotiations for a just and lasting peace”, he had announced shortly before during his homily, while, after the meeting, the President celebrated that “the Vatican is ready to make the invitations and organize the meeting with all of us, including the Europeans”.
More Read
Then, he stated his position to the U.S. Vice President, J.D. Vance, who had also traveled to Rome to participate in the event.
Trump, who initiated these dialogues between Russia and Ukraine with his return to the presidency, considered that this could be “a great idea”, given that, so far, his diplomatic efforts have not had great success due to the “anger” that exists between the parties.
In fact, at the end of last week, both countries agreed -at the request of Vladimir Putin– to hold their first face-to-face meeting in three years, to address the situation.
More Read
However, the Kremlin leader decided to be absent and sent, instead, a delegation with little decision-making and negotiation capacity, which quickly frustrated hopes of significant progress and exposed Russia’s real willingness to continue the war.
Just two days later, Trump held a phone call with both Zelensky and Putin, after which -he assured- “Russia and Ukraine will immediately begin negotiations to achieve a ceasefire and, more importantly, the END of the war“.
“The conditions for this will be negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be, because they know details of a negotiation that no one else would know,” he added, without giving further details, although implying that he still values his good relationship with Putin.
“Russia wants to trade big time with the United States when this catastrophic ‘bloodbath’ is over, and I agree. There is a tremendous opportunity for Russia to create massive amounts of jobs and wealth. Their potential is unlimited,” he noted in a message on his social media.
However, despite these announcements, the continuation of attacks by Moscow’s Armed Forces against the Ukrainian civilian population led Zelensky to denounce again this Tuesday that “it is obvious that Russia is trying to buy time to continue its war and occupation”.
SOURCE: INFOBAE
