Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Monday he had spoken with Pope Leo XIV and invited him to visit Ukraine.

On Sunday, the pontiff he carried “in my heart the sufferings of the beloved Ukrainian people.”

“May everything possible be done to reach an authentic, just and lasting peace, as soon as possible. Let all the prisoners be freed and the children return to their own families,” Leo said.

In a message on X – formerly known as Twitter – Zelenskyy mentioned it was their first conversation, “but already a very warm and truly substantive one.”

“I thanked His Holiness for his support of Ukraine and all our people. We deeply value his words about the need to achieve a just and lasting peace for our country and the release of prisoners. We also discussed the thousands of Ukrainian children deported by Russia. Ukraine counts on the Vatican’s assistance in bringing them home to their families,” the Ukrainian president added.

“I informed the Pope about the agreement between Ukraine and our partners that, starting today, a full and unconditional ceasefire for at least 30 days must begin. I also reaffirmed Ukraine’s readiness for further negotiations in any format, including direct talks — a position we have repeatedly emphasised. Ukraine wants to end this war and is doing everything to achieve that. We now await similar steps from Russia,” he said.

Zelenskyy also announced he invited Pope Leo to make an apostolic visit to Ukraine.

“Such a visit would bring real hope to all believers and to all our people,” he said.

The Ukrainian president also said the two men agreed to stay in contact and plan in-person meeting in the near future.

Zelenskyy’s X post was reposted by Alessandro Gisotti, the Deputy Editorial Director of Vatican Media.

“Never again war. #PopeLeoXIV #Ukraine️,” Gisotti wrote.

While serving as Bishop of Chiclayo in Peru, then-Bishop Robert Prevost — the man who became Pope Leo XIV on Thursday — spoke out against Russia’s continued war against Ukraine in a 2022 interview.

He told Semanario Expresión the Russian attack was “a true invasion, imperialist in nature, where Russia seeks to conquer territory for reasons of power.”

Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv–Galicia, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, recalled this statement in a recent interview.

“As a bishop in Peru, he made a very clear statement, calling Russian aggression imperialist, and clearly said that Russia is an aggressor, and Ukrainians are a strong people who have the right to defend themselves,” Shevchuk said.

“Bishop Prevost probably did not receive information from the media, which in Latin America was not particularly interested in Ukraine. He listened to what the Ukrainian Church said and trusted the voice of our Church,” he said.

“Therefore, I hope that now he will also listen to us before listening to propagandists from Moscow or other ideologues who are trying to humiliate, denigrate our Church or distort the truth about Ukraine,” Shevchuk continued.

“He will listen to the voice of the Church from Ukraine and thus it will be for him, I would say, an interpretive matrix, thanks to which he will understand what to say, how to act, how to behave towards our nation and the Church,” he said.

“We hope that dialogue and communication, in particular, between our Church and the new Pope, will grow and develop, and this will have a significant impact on the position of the Apostolic See and on concrete steps, including diplomatic ones, to deter and stop the barbaric invasion that is destroying Ukraine,” the major archbishop said.