Pope Francis is ready to mediate in the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine and offered that the Vatican could host the meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Leonid Sevastyanov, president of the International Federation of Orthodox Christians, who is the Catholic he referred to his conversation with the bishop.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov previously announced that Moscow welcomes French President Emmanuel Macron's proposal to involve Pope Francis and the US leadership in mediation efforts.
"Peskov's reaction shows that Russia considers Pope Francis acceptable as a negotiator. Some kind of movement is needed, probably first of all on the Russian side. The Pope confirmed to me that he is ready to act as a mediator and offered that the Vatican would be happy to host the talks, first between Zelensky and Putin. These would be held in the form of round table discussions with the participation of Pope Francis, Zelenskiy and Putin, which would be moderated by the head of the church. The presidents could discuss topics such as a ceasefire, some sort of separation of teams, and later more global issues could also be discussed," said Sevastyanov.
The religious leader said that Pope Francis also proposed a conference after the negotiations, to which, in addition to the Ukrainian and Russian sides, representatives of the United States and European countries would be officially invited.
As he said, this would be a kind of European security conference where the parties could agree on some kind of new form of security. "The Vatican has the infrastructure in Rome to host any format of conference on its territory," he added.
Source: MTI
Photo: AFP/Alberto Pizzoli
