By Joshua McElwee
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the Vatican on Friday morning for their second face-to-face encounter in four months.
The pope and the Ukrainian leader, who met on the sidelines of the Group of Seven (G7) summit in southern Italy this summer, held private talks at the Vatican’s apostolic palace.
Zelenskiy is travelling across Europe this week to discuss his proposed “victory plan” with the leaders of Britain, France, Italy and Germany, and the head of NATO.
Western officials and Zelenskiy have said the war with Russia is at a critical point and Ukraine is keen for further support to try to change the balance on the battlefield to put itself in a strong position for eventual peace talks.
The pope drew the ire of Ukrainian officials in March when he suggested they should have the courage of the “white flag” to negotiate an end to the war with Russia. At the time, Zelenskiy dismissed the pope’s remarks as “virtual mediation” from a distance.
Francis has also criticised Ukrainian lawmakers’ plans to ban activities of a Russia-linked branch of the Christian Orthodox church, which the Ukrainians have accused of spreading pro-Russian propaganda and housing spies.
The pope met privately on Thursday with the leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk. The prelate, who is based in Kyiv, has been in Rome for an ongoing Vatican summit of global bishops.
“I wanted to tell the pope about the disaster of the war and the challenges coming this winter,” Shevchuk told the Vatican’s media outlet.
(Reporting by Joshua McElwee; Editing by Crispian Balmer)
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