Cardinal Matteo Zuppi arrived in the Russian capital on Sunday for three days of talks. Discussions are expected to include exchanges of prisoners of war and the return of Ukrainian children transferred to Russia. Ivan Soltanovsky, Russia’s ambassador to the Vatican, told Avvenire: “Cardinal Matteo Zuppi is always welcome in Moscow.” He added that agreements reached through the effort are significant and thanked Zuppi for his contribution.
Soltanovsky described exchanges of civilian detainees as a new issue whose development is difficult to predict. He said officials first need to determine who belongs in that category; the lists received so far do not allow them to assess how many exchanges may be possible.
Since Russia’s attack on Ukraine began, papal envoys have visited Moscow three times. In August, Vatican diplomacy chief Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and presidential foreign-policy adviser Yuri Ushakov. Zuppi visited Kyiv in July.
During the August visit, Gallagher called for an end to the war and raised humanitarian concerns, separated families and the growing number of casualties. Soltanovsky also claimed that European rearmament resulted from a lack of dialogue between Russia and the EU and that some European elites were sabotaging peace talks. Those are the Russian ambassador’s assertions, not independently verified facts.