Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed war and peace in Ukraine in separate phone calls with Pope Leo XIV and US President Donald Trump overnight. Source: OSV News.
Pope Leo and Mr Putin held their first telephone conversation, with the Pope encouraging Mr Putin to make a gesture to show he is serious about peace with Ukraine, the Vatican press office said.
“I confirm that this afternoon there was a telephone conversation between Pope Leo XIV and President Putin,” Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, said.
While they spoke of several “matters of mutual interest,” Mr Bruni said that “special attention was paid to the situation in Ukraine and peace.”
“The Pope made an appeal for Russia to make a gesture that would promote peace, stressed the importance of dialogue for the realisation of positive contacts between the parties and seeking solutions to the conflict,” Mr Bruni said.
The Pope and Mr Putin also discussed the humanitarian situation, the need to facilitate the delivery of aid and ongoing negotiations over the exchange of prisoners of war, an effort Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna is involved with, he said.
In a post on Telegram, the Russian news agency Tass, citing the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, said that “Mr Putin drew the Pope’s attention to the escalation of the Ukrainian conflict by the Kiev (Kyiv) regime,” apparently referred to Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian war planes on Sunday.
Mr Putin “thanked the Pope for his readiness to assist in resolving the conflict in Ukraine,” Tass reported. Pope Leo had offered the Vatican as a neutral site for peace talks, but Russia declined the invitation.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has played down the chances of successful peace talks in the Russia-Ukraine war after a phone call with Vladimir Putin, and foreshadowed Russian retaliation to the weekend’s surprise Ukrainian attacks on Russian air bases, The Age reports.
In a social media post overnight, Mr Trump said he spoke with the Russian president for an hour and 15 minutes in a conversation that canvassed recent attacks by both sides, and the prospect of a nuclear Iran.
“It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate peace,” he wrote. “President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields.”
FULL STORY
Pope Leo XIV, speaking on phone with Putin, appeals for gesture of peace (By Cindy Wooden, OSV News)
Trump flags Russian retaliation, plays down peace talks after Putin call (By Michael Koziolm, The Age)
