Pope Leo, in first known call with foreign leader, speaks to Ukraine’s Zelensky

Pope Leo XIV had a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on May 12 and spoke about ceasefire proposals, Mr Zelensky said, in the first known conversation between the newly-elected pontiff and a foreign leader.

Mr Zelensky said in a post on the Telegram app that his first conversation with the new pontiff was “very warm and truly substantive”, and that he had invited the Pope to visit Ukraine.

He said the two had spoken about Ukrainian children forcibly removed from Ukraine by Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and about efforts to negotiate an end to their war.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni confirmed to Reuters that a call had taken place. He did not offer further comment about the content of the call.

Ukraine had a complex relationship with Pope Leo's predecessor Pope Francis, who died on April 21.

The late Pope condemned Russia’s war with Ukraine as an unjustified act of aggression and called Ukraine a “martyred nation”. Francis made appeals for peace at nearly every public appearance, at least twice a week.

But he disappointed many Ukrainians by not explicitly condemning Russian leader Vladimir Putin as the aggressor, and by suggesting that Ukraine should sue for peace in order to end the death and destruction. REUTERS