Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has met with Pope Leo XIV and thanked him for the Vatican’s efforts to help return children taken by Russia during the war.

Pope Leo told visiting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday that the Vatican is willing to host Russia-Ukraine peace talks, the Vatican said in a statement. The pope, meeting the Ukrainian leader for the second time in his two-month-old papacy,

Q: Cardinal Zuppi, Pope Leo expressed appreciation for the 'schools of peace' initiative, an experience that already belongs to some Dioceses, but he specified that this is, in a certain sense, an urgent task for everyone. How did you receive the Pope’s words, and what, concretely, is being considered to put them into practice?