Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
ukraine has asked Vatican To formalize its role in facilitating negotiations on the return of Ukrainian children and citizens Russia During the nearly four-year war, a Kyiv The government official said this on Wednesday.
President Volodymyr Zelensky made the request in a letter to Pope Leo XIV ahead of an audience on Friday between the Pope and a delegation of returned Ukrainian children and citizens.
The letter asked that Leo formalize an informal arrangement started by Pope Francis in which an Italian cardinal, Matteo Zuppi, acted as personal papal envoy for humanitarian issues.
“To be able to achieve more, we need to formalize this process at the Vatican, and that’s why this request has now come officially,” said Irina Vereshchuk, deputy head of Zelensky’s office.
He told reporters in Rome that Ukraine wants the Holy See to act as a mediator, or “forum”, through which Ukraine and Russia can discuss the return of citizens.
It is unclear whether anyone has been returned through the Vatican’s unofficial channels.
Vereshchuk was accompanied by a delegation of Ukrainian children, parents and grandparents who lived in Russian-controlled or occupied parts of Donetsk or were held elsewhere by Russian forces and were now living in Ukrainian-controlled territory.
He said that under the Zuppi mission, Russia managed to use the “gray zone” to not respond to Ukraine’s list of citizens it wanted to release, because the process was not formal.
“Once the process is formalized we can have proper communication with the Russians and they will have to respond when we submit a letter through the platform,” he said.
Neither the Vatican nor the Russian Embassy to the Holy See immediately responded to requests for comment.
Ukrainian officials say the country continues to document thousands of cases of children who were illegally taken to Russian territory during the war – a practice Kiev calls one of the conflict’s most sensitive humanitarian crises.
International Criminal Court issues arrest warrant for Russian President in 2023 Vladimir Putin As for war crimes, he was accused of personal responsibility for the kidnapping of children from Ukraine.
According to current data published by the Bring Kids Back presidential platform of Ukraine, 19,546 Ukrainian children were officially recorded as being deported or forcibly transferred by Russia.
Media reports quoting Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said that as of 27 March, 1,247 children had been successfully returned to Ukraine through diplomatic and humanitarian channels.
,
Novikov contributed from Kyiv, Ukraine.
,
Associated Press religion coverage is supported by the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from the Lilly Endowment Inc. AP is solely responsible for this content.