The Pope’s envoy for peace in Ukraine, Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, will meet this Wednesday in Moscow with an adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin.indicated the Kremlin, which indicated that it values the efforts and initiative of the Vatican to seek a solution to the armed conflict.
Zuppi arrived in the Russian capital on Tuesday as part of his peace mission commissioned by Pope Francis, and this Wednesday will have its first meetingsamong them one with the adviser for International Affairs of the Russian Presidency, Yuri Ushakov.
According to the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskovin his daily telephone press conference, the two will address “the situation around the conflict in Ukraine and, of course, the possible ways of a political and diplomatic agreement.”
“We highly value the Vatican’s efforts and initiatives to find a peaceful solution to the Ukraine crisis and we welcome the Pope’s desire to contribute to ending the armed conflict in Ukraine,” he said.
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Pope Francis, for his part, wished this Wednesday that peace would arrive in Ukraine “soon”, coinciding with the visit of his envoy to Russia. “There is a lot of suffering in Ukraine, let’s not forget it,” the pope said at the end of the general audience held in St. Peter’s Square.
The Vatican pointed out the day before that the main objective of Francis’ initiative is to “promote gestures of humanity that can contribute to favoring a solution to the current tragic situation and find ways to achieve a just peace.”
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Putin has said on several occasions that he is open to studying all peace proposals.be it the Vatican, the Brazilian, the African or the Chinese, but both he and other senior officials say that Ukraine is the one that does not want to negotiate with Russia.
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Besides, Moscow points out that in any case kyiv would have to accept the “realities on the ground”referring to the illegal annexations of Crimea (2014) and four other Ukrainian regions (2022).
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Ukraine’s position
The cardinal’s visit comes three weeks after Zuppi visited kyivwhere he met with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskywho reiterated that it will not accept any cessation of hostilities that does not involve the Russian withdrawal from its territories.
The head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Andri Yermakgreeted the Italian cardinal’s trip to Moscow on Tuesday, as long as it contributes to advancing towards the return of Ukrainian prisoners of war and children deported to Russia.
“We do not need mediation. We do not trust Russia and we believe that this will not change,” Yermak told a media meeting.
EFE
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