President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets with Pope Francis
As part of his official visit to the Republic of Italy and the Vatican, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Pope Francis.
At the meeting, the Head of State focused on stopping Russian military aggression and restoring peace.
"A clear and realistic algorithm for achieving a just peace is laid out in the Ukrainian Peace Formula," Zelenskyy said.
He asked Pope Francis to comprehensively contribute to the implementation of the Peace Formula, particularly in the areas of food security, the release of prisoners and deported persons, and the restoration of justice.
"Since the war continues on the territory of Ukraine, the peace plan can only be Ukrainian," the President said.
Zelenskyy called on His Holiness to clearly condemn Russia's military aggression against Ukraine and emphasized that there cannot be equality between the victim and the aggressor.
A separate topic of the meeting was Russia's crimes related to the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children to the Russian Federation. The head of the Ukrainian state called on the Vatican to join Ukraine's efforts aimed at returning Ukrainian children illegally and forcibly taken to Russia, de facto abducted.
Zelenskyy invited Pope Francis to visit our country in order to support with prayer all Ukrainians, who suffer from Russian terror and fight against the evil that has come to Ukrainian land.
The President also handed over to His Holiness the painting "Loss, 2022-58" by Oleksiy Revika, who was born in the now Russian-occupied Melitopol of Zaporizhzhia region. This painting is part of the "Red Line" series, which illustrates the events of the war that are happening now. Each work of the series is a red line crossed by Russia.