Pope Francis received the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky on 11 October, Friday, at the Vatican as part of an international tour the Ukrainian leader is undertaking in Europe.
This is the third private meeting since Zelensky was elected president of Ukraine, a country that has been at war with Russia since February 2022.
After visiting Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister of Italy, on Thursday, Zelensky arrived at the Vatican’s San Damaso Courtyard in the morning. The Holy Father received him in the Apostolic Palace.
The private meeting lasted just over half an hour and although the Vatican has not offered further details, their conversation is believed to have focused mainly on the conflict affecting the country.
Pope Francis expressed his concern about the war in “martyred Ukraine,” asking for prayers for peace and calling on the international community to step up efforts to end the violence.
He also called for the release of those kidnapped by the Russian army and denounced the suffering and difficulties faced by the most vulnerable, especially children, who, he says, have had their smiles “robbed” by the war.
Pope Francis gave the president a bronze statue of a flower next to a bird with the inscription “Peace is a fragile flower.”
He also presented him with this year’s Message for Peace, the volumes of papal documents, the book on the Statio Orbis of March 27, 2020, and the book Persecuted for the Truth, Ukrainian Greek Catholics behind the Iron Curtain.
Volodymyr Zelensky gave the Holy Father an oil painting depicting “The Bucha Massacre. The Story of Marichka”, which depicts a sad-faced underage girl who is unable to come to terms with what has just happened in her city.
This painting features Marichka, who witnessed the torture and execution of her family during the massacre that took place in the Ukrainian city of Bucha in March 2022, when Russian army soldiers murdered, raped, kidnapped and robbed hundreds of Ukrainian civilians.
At the end of the General Audience on 6 April, Pope Francis showed and kissed a Ukrainian flag of “the martyred city of Bucha,” and later greeted refugee children.
On that occasion, the Pontiff said that “the recent news about the war in Ukraine, instead of bringing relief and hope, shows a new atrocity, like the massacre of Bucha.”
Following his meeting with Pope Francis, the President of Ukraine met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Holy See, accompanied by Msgr. Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations of the Secretariat of State.