Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on May 24 cast doubt on the Vatican as a possible venue for future peace talks with Ukraine, saying the Catholic seat would not be an appropriate platform for negotiations between two Orthodox Christian nations, Reuters reported.
Previously, Pope Leo XIV expressed his willingness to host the next round of peace talks in the Vatican. Several of Ukraine's partners, including the United States, have suggested that the Vatican could become a neutral platform for further negotiations.
"Imagine the Vatican as a venue for negotiations," Lavrov reportedly said during a speech at the Diplomatic Academy in Moscow. “It would be a bit inelegant for Orthodox countries to use a Catholic platform to discuss issues on how to remove the root causes (of the war)."
Lavrov added that he believed "it would not be very comfortable for the Vatican itself to host delegations from two Orthodox countries in these circumstances."
Ukrainian and Russian delegations met in Istanbul for peace talks on May 16, failing to reach a ceasefire agreement. During the meeting, Moscow demanded Kyiv withdraw from four Ukrainian regions it claims to have annexed, despite lacking full control over them.
Ukrainian officials said the Russian delegation appeared to lack real authority and was unprepared to negotiate substantive terms.
One outcome of the talks was a large-scale prisoner exchange, with 1,000 prisoners returning on each side beginning May 23. Ukraine had also proposed an immediate ceasefire and a potential face-to-face meeting between President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin — an offer Moscow declined.
Zelensky met with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on May 18, following the pontiff’s inauguration mass. The Ukrainian leader described the pope as "a symbol of hope for peace" and said the Holy See could play an important role in ending the war. The two discussed the return of children forcibly deported by Russia and other humanitarian issues.
Zelensky presented Pope Leo with an icon painted on artillery debris from the front lines — a gift meant to represent Ukrainian children affected by the war.
Before becoming pope, Leo XIV denounced Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine while serving as Bishop of Chiclayo in Peru. In his 2022 interview, he described it as "a true invasion, imperialist in nature, where Russia seeks to conquer territory for reasons of power."
Martin Fornusek
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