Pope’s Envoy Visit Ukraine To ‘Listen Carefully’ To Potential Peace Plan

Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi left for Kyiv today on a two-day visit to meet with the government officials after receiving a mandate from Pope Francis to conduct a peace mission to try to assist put an end to the fighting in Ukraine.

In a brief statement, the Vatican confirmed his visit, which many observers view as an uphill battle. According to the statement, the main goal was to “pay close attention to Ukrainian authorities regarding possible avenues to a just peace and support humanitarian gestures that may help ease tensions.”

The future meeting between President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Zuppi, the archbishop of Bologna and president of the Italian Bishops Conference, was unclear.

After paying a visit to the pope on May 13 at the Vatican, Zelenskiy gave the impression that he was uninterested in any papal proposal that may put Ukraine on an equal footing with Russia, which invaded its neighbor on February 24, 2022.

In a statement to reporters last month, Zuppi, 67, said that while he did not anticipate a mediation in the traditional sense, he was willing to “do anything” to reduce tensions.

We must at the very least express our sympathies for the victims and our desire to do everything in our power to lessen the effects when we see a war, he said.

Zelenskiy asked the pope to support Kyiv’s peace plan at the conference in May, which Zelenskiy has previously stated is not negotiable. The strategy asks for restoring Ukraine’s state borders as well as its territorial integrity, the departure of Russian forces, and an end to hostilities.

The pope sidestepped the subject in an interview on May 26, saying that the ultimate restoration of occupied territory by Russia is a “political problem” that needs to be resolved by both parties.

According to diplomats, Ukraine would be open to the notion of scheduling a meeting between Zuppi and Zelenskiy as well as a potential meeting between Zuppi and Vladimir Putin of Russia on the same flight.

After his meeting with the pope on May 13, Zelenskiy declared, “There can be no equality between the aggressor and the victim.”

The Vatican’s mention of “humanitarian gestures” in its statement today looked to be a reference to Kyiv’s request for assistance with the repatriation of Ukrainian children and the Vatican’s readiness to provide it.

Since February 2022, Kyiv thinks that almost 19,500 kids have been deported illegally, either to Russia or the Crimean peninsula under Russian control.

Zuppi is from the Sant’Egidio Community, a peace and justice organization with headquarters in Rome that has played a significant role in numerous peace talks, particularly in Africa.

The organization mediated a compromise in 1992 that put an end to the Mozambique civil war, which had resulted in the deaths of almost a million people and the displacement of about four million.