President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has arrived at the Vatican to meet with Pope Francis, Suspilne reports.
According to Reuters, the president was met by Bishop Leonardo Sapienza, Regent of the Prefecture of the Papal House, in the square in front of the hall.
Pope Francis and Zelenskyy held private talks in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace. This is the second personal meeting between the pontiff and the president of Ukraine in four months. They already met on the sidelines of the G7 summit in June.
At the end of the meeting, Francis presented Zelenskyy with a bronze sculpture of a flower growing next to a bird with the following inscription: “Peace is a fragile flower”.
At the same time, the Ukrainian president presented the Pope with an oil painting depicting a child among the ruins of the Ukrainian town of Bucha near Kyiv, which was occupied by Russian troops for 33 days in the spring of 2022.
It is worth noting that the day before, the Pope had an audience with the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, who had arrived for the Synod of Bishops in the Vatican.
I told Pope Francis about the tragedy that the Ukrainian people are experiencing, about this war, which the Pope calls a sacrilegious war. I asked the Holy Father to be the voice that will defend Ukraine. I asked the Holy Father for a voice in defense of the civilian population and for a clear voice to condemn the Russian attacks on civilians and the attempts to destroy the infrastructure of our cities and villages in order to freeze Ukrainians this winter. The Pope promised that he is doing everything to ensure that the war in Ukraine ends, – said the head of the UGCC.
On October 10, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy paid visits to the United Kingdom, France, and Italy.
