As Pope Francis’s emissary to Ukraine closed a two-day trip to Kyiv for talks on a possible ceasefire with Russia, Ukrainian authorities voiced gratitude for the visit but insisted on following their own peace plan, CRUX reports.
From June 5-6, Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna, President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, visited the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv for the purpose, according to a Vatican statement, of holding “in-depth” listening sessions with Ukrainian authorities on “possible ways to achieve a just peace” and to support “gestures of humanity” that help ease tensions on the ground.
In a June 5 tweet on Zuppi’s visit, Ukrainian Ambassador to the Holy See Andrii Yurash said Ukraine welcomed the Vatican’s interest in “the bloody war started by Russia,” as well as the Holy See’s intention to “understand deeply [the] realities” of the war.
An up-close look at the war and its consequences, he said, will “help for sure in finding appropriate answers in [the] name of just peace.”
Zuppi, who has experience as a conflict negotiator, having helped the Vatican negotiate the Mozambique peace accords in 1992 through the Community of Sant’Egidio to which he belongs, closed his visit to Kyiv Tuesday.
