Pope Francis asked to travel to Moscow to meet with Russian president Vladimir Putin to try to stop the war, but so far he says he has received no response. Italian newspaper “Corriere della Sera” published an interview with the Pope in which he says that he fears Putin “cannot and does not want to” receive him because he believes the Russian leader will not stop the war at this time.
Pope Francis shared that he called the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the first day of the war, but that he will not go to Ukraine without meeting with Putin first. He recalled that he had not spoken to the Russian president since last December when Putin called the Pope for his birthday.
He also said that Hungarian President Viktor Orbán assured him that the Russians have a plan in their meeting, and that on May 9, the anniversary of Nazi Germany's surrender to the Soviet Union at the end of World War II, everything will end.
RGA
TR: JM
