Vatican City.- The Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, was received this Saturday by Pope Francis at the Vatican as part of his visit to Italy.
The Pope thanked Zelensky for his visit to the Vatican: “Thank you for this visit”, were the first words the Pope uttered when he saw the President, to which Zelensky replied: “It is an honor”.
According to a statement from the Vatican Press Office, Francis stressed the urgent need for “human gestures” towards the most fragile people and the innocent victims of the conflict in Ukraine.
The meeting took place in the so-called “Auletta”, next to the Paul VI Hall, where they addressed the humanitarian and political situation caused by the war while the Pope reiterated his “constant prayer”.
“The Pope has assured his constant prayer, witnessed by his numerous public appeals and his continuous invocation to the Lord for peace, since February of last year,” according to the press office.
“Both agreed on the need to continue with humanitarian efforts to support the population.”
For his part, Zelensky said he was grateful for the attention paid to the tragedy of millions of Ukrainians.
“I met with Pope Francis. I am grateful for his personal attention to the tragedy of millions of Ukrainians. I spoke of tens of thousands of deported children. We must do everything possible to return them home,” Zelensky wrote on Twitter after the meeting.
“In addition, I asked to condemn crimes in Ukraine. Because there can be no equality between victim and offender. I also spoke about our Peace Formula as the only effective algorithm to achieve a just peace. I proposed to join its implementation.”
The 86-year-old Argentine Pontiff called on numerous occasions for the end of the war in Ukraine and this same Saturday evoked, when receiving ambassadors, the “unspeakable suffering and deaths” caused by that conflict.
Previously, Zelensky met with the Italian Prime Minister before traveling to Germany, which announced a major military aid package for Ukraine, in full preparation of an offensive to recover territories occupied by Russia.
“An important visit to get closer to the victory of Ukraine!” Zelensky tweeted after arriving in Rome, on his first trip to Italy, a member country of the European Union (EU) and NATO, since the start of the Russian invasion. in February 2022.
Amid tight security, the President was initially received by the Italian President, Sergio Mattarella, and then by the Head of Government, Giorgia Meloni.
Italy, despite its traditionally good relations with Russia, has sent arms and financial aid to Ukraine and supported Western powers’ sanctions against the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Meanwhile, Germany announced a new military aid plan for Ukraine of 2.7 billion euros (2.95 billion dollars).
The package, the largest in Germany since the start of the war, according to the weekly Der Spiegel, will include 30 Leopard-1 A5 tanks, Marder-type armored vehicles, anti-aircraft defense systems and surveillance drones.
“We all want a quick end to this atrocious Russian war against the Ukrainian people, but unfortunately it is not in sight. That is why Germany will provide all the help it can, for as long as it takes,” the German Minister of Defense said in a statement. Defense, Boris Pistorius.
An adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, Mikhailo Podolyak, said that this aid shows that Russia is “doomed to lose” the war.
Western countries have multiplied their announcements of military aid to Ukraine in recent days, which has provoked the ire of Moscow.
Russia on Friday described Britain’s decision to deliver long-range missiles to Ukraine as “extremely hostile” and accused the British government of seeking a “serious aggravation” of the conflict.
The head of European Union (EU) diplomacy, Josep Borrell, on Saturday urged other European nations to provide Ukraine with long-range weapons.
“The Russians are bombing from afar, so the Ukrainians need to reach (…) the same distance,” Borrell said after meeting Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Stockholm.
In Germany, Zelensky will receive the Charlemagne Prize, which rewards a particularly outstanding commitment to understanding in Europe.
“For the first time in its long history, the Charlemagne Prize recognizes with this award that freedom and the fundamental principles of Europe must be defended by force if necessary,” the head of its organizing committee, Jürgen Linden, said this week at the Tagesspiegel journal.
On the other hand, the Ukrainian army assured that it “advances” in “some areas” around Bakhmut and that “the enemy loses equipment and troops.”
The Russian Ministry of Defense assured, for its part, that its troops “liberated a neighborhood in the northwestern part of the city of Artiomovsk”, the Russian name for Bakhmut.
The Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office reported that at least two people died, one of them a 15-year-old girl, and ten were injured in a shelling against the city of Kostiantynivka, about 25 km from Bakhmut.
Expectations for kyiv’s spring counteroffensive are rising, but Zelensky said on Thursday his army needed more time to launch a full-scale counteroffensive.
“We are mentally prepared,” but under the current conditions “we would lose a lot of people,” he said.
