Before announcing his upcoming surgery during his Angelus on Sunday, Pope Leo XIV appealed for Ukraine, calling for protection for grain shipments in the war-torn country.

“The war in tormented Ukraine continues to cause suffering far beyond its borders, especially in the poorest countries, where so many people depend on grain imports,” the pope said to St. Peter’s Square.

“I make a heartfelt appeal to the parties to the conflict to allow for the safe transport of grain through the Black Sea. The daily bread of millions of people cannot be held hostage by the war,” Leo said.

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The appeal came on the same day U.S. President Donald Trump said that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to an “energy ceasefire” in the 4 1/2-year-old war, but he offered no details on it, and Kyiv reported attacks by Moscow on energy sites after his statement.

Trump’s brief social media post said only that the ceasefire took effect immediately, adding, “Do not break it!”

Moscow did not immediately comment. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that while his country “welcomed” Trump’s announcement as “good news for everyone,” Russia was still hitting energy infrastructure in Kyiv and Kharkiv.

“Unfortunately, Ukrainian skies have been infested with Russian ‘shaheds’ all day today,” he said in an evening address, referring to drones launched by Moscow. “There have been glide bomb strikes and strikes on our energy infrastructure too. A power plant in Kharkiv was attacked this evening.”

Ukrainian officials said Monday that Russian forces had continued to strike energy facilities, including one on the outskirts of Kharkiv. A Russian drone attack on the village of Pisochyn in the Kharkiv district on Sunday killed three people and injured nine others, including children.

The presidential office confirmed the Kharkiv attack came after Trump’s ceasefire post.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine was “ready to refrain from striking Russian energy infrastructure — and we count on the same readiness from Russia.”

Russia has sought to deny Ukrainian civilians power, heat and running water during the war, hoping to wear down public resistance to Moscow’s full-scale invasion. Ukrainian officials describe the strategy as “weaponizing winter.”

Also on Sunday, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church spoke of where Ukrainians find the strength to keep going.

Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Pontifical Ukrainian College of St. Josaphat in Rome to mark the start of the academic year.

“So many mothers are weeping today,” he said. “The whole world wonders where Ukrainians find the strength to get up every day and fight every day – every day wresting the coming day from death, creating a space for life.”

Speaking to the seminarians and young priests studying in Rome, he said: “Looking at you, we are looking at the face of Ukrainian hope.”

That hope, he said, does not deny the pain of war.

“Where human efforts are exhausted, a spark of God’s power is kindled,” Shevchuk said.

“In Ukraine, every day we thank the Lord God and the Armed Forces of Ukraine that we are still alive, can go on living, working, and proclaiming God’s word about the resurrection,” he said.

This article contains material from the Associated Press.

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