Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the pope’s envoy and head of the Italian bishops’ conference, held talks with Russian officials and visited Ukrainian prisoners of war. His meetings included Yuri Ushakov, the Kremlin official responsible for foreign policy.
The three days of talks coincided with Pope Leo’s appeal for Russia and Ukraine to sit down and discuss ending the war, now in its fourth year following Russia’s 2022 invasion. The pope also criticized national leaders for speaking about nuclear weapons and increasingly destructive wars. Russia’s ministry said the discussions covered prospects for a settlement, prisoner exchanges and displaced children.
The statement addressed Oleshky, a town in the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s Kherson region. Ukrainian officials said Kyiv’s military used drones the previous weekend to deliver food and medicine to civilians. Moscow said Ukraine was blocking attempts to supply residents; Ukrainian officials said Russian forces were preventing people from leaving. The claims conflict and were not independently verified in the report.
Russia’s ministry said Zuppi was allowed to visit the prisoners and speak with Ukrainians in person. It claimed the visit let him see that Russia follows humanitarian standards and called it confirmation of regular, constructive Moscow-Vatican dialogue. Zuppi last visited Moscow in October 2024 and has also met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv.