Vatican's foreign minister discusses Ukraine with Russia's Lavrov

By Joshua McElwee

The Vatican's Foreign Minister Archbishop Paul Gallagher held a phone call on Friday with Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov to discuss the war in Ukraine and plans to stop the fighting, the Vatican said.

Russia's foreign ministry later said the call had been initiated by the Vatican, and that Lavrov and Gallagher had discussed "ways to resolve the Ukrainian crisis with the obligatory reliable elimination of its root causes".

The Vatican has regularly condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine but also called for negotiations to bring the war to an end.

Russia and Ukraine agreed to a limited truce last month against launching attacks against the other side's energy facilities. Both have accused each other of violating the agreement, which was brokered by the United States.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy met Pope Francis at the Vatican last October and asked for the pontiff's help in securing the release of Ukrainians held captive by Russia.

Lavrov met the Vatican's number two official, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, in September on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly session in New York.

Francis, currently out of public view as he recovers from double pneumonia, drew the ire of Ukrainian officials in March 2024 when he suggested they should have the courage of the "white flag" to negotiate an end to the war.

At the time Zelenskiy dismissed the pope's remarks as "virtual mediation" from a distance.