“During the meeting with Pope Francis, the issue of bringing our people home from captivity was the main topic,” the president said on the “X” platform after the talks in the Vatican.
This was Zelenskiy’s second private audience in the Vatican since Russia’s full-scale invasion. The two leaders also met at the G7 summit in southern Italy in June.
Journalists, public figures, community leaders and ordinary people captured by Russia are languishing in Russian prisons, Zelensky said.
“For all of us in Ukraine, the issue of captured and deported people is still extremely painful,” the president said.
Ukraine has previously asked the Vatican for help in repatriating children forcibly taken to Russia.
Francis has repeatedly called for peace and tried to play the role of a mediator in the conflict. True, these efforts of his have not yet yielded results.
Zelensky’s meeting with Pope Francis lasted 35 minutes. In the course of it, the leaders exchanged gifts. Zelensky presented Francis with the painting “Butch Massacre”.
After that, the President of Ukraine met with Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin and Minister of Foreign Affairs Paul Richard Gallagher.
These talks were devoted to “the state of war and the humanitarian situation in Ukraine, as well as ways to end it, achieving a just and stable peace in the country,” the Vatican said in a statement.
The Vatican added that “certain issues related to religious life in the country were also examined.”
Francis met with the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church on Thursday before Zelensky’s visit.
A severe winter awaits Ukraine – Moscow continues to strike the country’s power grid, but the situation on the eastern front remains difficult.