Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with Pope Francis during his official visit to the Vatican on Feb. 8 to talk about bringing peace to Ukraine.
After the audience, Zelensky said that Pope had called him “a president of peace.”
“This is my image in Europe now,” he said, according to the statement on the presidential website.
As the Vatican has diplomatic relations with both Ukraine and Russia, for the Ukrainian president, the audience with Pope Francis was a chance to ask to help release Ukrainians held as prisoners of war in Russia, annexed Crimea and in the occupied Donbas.
“Pontifex (Pope Francis) does everything possible to achieve peace and harmony throughout the world,” Zelensky wrote on Twitter.
Pope Francis talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) during a private audience at the Vatican on Feb. 8, 2020. (Presidential press service)
Zelensky also invited Pope Francis to visit Ukraine and to see the results of the war Russia wages in the Donbas.
“I am sure he will be in Ukraine, not only in the capital,” said Zelensky. “I said that in order to fully understand what was happening in (country’s) east, it is necessary to go there.”
Pope Francis and Zelensky also discussed humanitarian initiatives to help children and protect the environment.
“I am extremely grateful to (Pope Francis) for his Ukraine initiative, which helped 900,000 Ukrainians who had suffered in the Donbas,” Zelenskyy said, referring to the 15 million euros humanitarian aid from the Pope in 2018. The money was raised at Catholic churches across Europe at the call of Pope Francis.
