The Pope calls for the war to stop as the Holy See prepares a mission to Moscow

Pope Leo XIV has issued another appeal for an end to the war in Ukraine and Russia, asking that room be given to diplomacy. «Continuano a giungere notizie dolorose di persone innocenti uccise e ferite in Ucraina e in Russia. Tragici episodi si susseguono, anzi, si moltiplicano» (painful news keeps arriving of innocent people killed and wounded in Ukraine and in Russia; tragic episodes follow one another, indeed they multiply), he said at the Angelus prayer in St Peter’s Square, also referring to child victims.

«Sono vicino alle famiglie delle vittime, ai feriti e a tutti coloro che soffrono a causa del conflitto in atto» (I am close to the families of the victims, to the wounded and to all who suffer because of the ongoing conflict), he added. «Di fronte a tanto dolore rinnovo un accorato appello affinché si rispetti il diritto umanitario e cessino da entrambe le parti gli attacchi che coinvolgono obiettivi civili» (faced with so much pain I renew a heartfelt appeal for humanitarian law to be respected and for attacks involving civilian targets to cease on both sides). The Pontiff then pressed the political point: «La guerra non fa che generare altra guerra e provoca enormi sofferenze. È tempo di fermare la spirale di violenza e dare spazio alla diplomazia e al dialogo per aprire la strada alla pace» (war only generates more war and causes enormous suffering; it is time to stop the spiral of violence and give room to diplomacy and dialogue to open the way to peace).

Compared with the many appeals addressed so far to the Ukrainian people, this time the Pope placed the pain of innocent victims on both fronts on the same footing. It is a sign of pressure to speed up a settlement of a conflict that has lasted four and a half years and for which no way out is in sight.

Two missions, two roles

The Holy See is deploying its two key figures. In July Monsignor Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States, and Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the Pope’s special envoy, were in Ukraine. The mission to Moscow is now being prepared, with the same division of tasks: the more political questions for the first, humanitarian ones for the Italian cardinal.

For the first time since the war began, Gallagher will travel to the Russian capital at the end of the month to meet the authorities and attempt a mediation. The mission has not yet been announced by the Vatican, but it is confirmed by the Russian embassy to the Holy See.

Zuppi had already been to Moscow in 2023 and 2024, sent by Pope Francis. In mid-July he visited detention camps in Ukraine holding soldiers from the Russian side captured in the fighting, many of them foreigners. According to sources close to the cardinal, he also wants to visit detention camps in Russia, starting with the occupied region of Donetsk. The programme of the visit, which could take place in September, has not yet been set. It is the prisoners and the civilians under attack, in both countries, who depend on that calendar.