Pope: Vatican mediation in Ukraine-Russia talks unlikely

Pope Leo XIV considers it unrealistic for the Vatican to mediate in the negotiations between Ukraine and Russia. He said this in an interview with the Catholic publication Crux.

"I would draw a distinction between the voice of the Holy See speaking for peace and acting as a mediator. In my opinion, this is a completely different and not as realistic solution as the first one," the Pope said .

He noted that he has repeatedly stated that peace is the only way out and that people "need to wake up" after "so many years of senseless killing," referring to the full-scale war in Ukraine and other global conflicts.

Leo XIV reminded that the Vatican had repeatedly offered to hold a meeting for negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, realizing the possible consequences. At the same time, from the very beginning of the full-scale war, the Holy See made great efforts to maintain a position of neutrality.

But now, objectively, there is no question of Vatican mediation, the pontiff emphasized.

"In my opinion, it is not realistic to talk about mediation now. It takes a number of different actors to push hard enough for the warring parties to say: 'Enough is enough, let's look for another way to resolve our disputes,'" he said .

The Pope said that the Vatican continues to hope, and he personally "has high hopes" for human nature.

• july 9 President Zelenskyy meets with Pope. Vatican makes it clear that it is still ready to accept Ukraine-Russia talks.
• On July 26, Pope meets with a senior metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church. Among the topics of the meeting was the Russian-Ukrainian war.