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Biden and Vatican envoy meet to discuss war in Ukraine

2023-07-18 09:12:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

US President Joe Biden will meet with Pope Francis' envoy within the framework of the Holy See's peaceful and humanitarian initiatives for Ukraine.

At the top of the agenda for their meeting on Tuesday is the situation of Ukrainian children who were sent to Russia, the White House and the Vatican said.

Cardinal Matteo Zuppi will remain in Washington until Wednesday. Before that, he was on a mission to Moscow, then to Kiev, where he also met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed that Biden will meet with Zuppi on Tuesday to "discuss the suffering caused by Russia's brutal war in Ukraine."

Jean-Pierre also said that "the efforts of the United States and the Holy See to provide humanitarian aid to those affected, as well as the Holy See's focus on the repatriation of Ukrainian children forcibly taken by Russian officials," will be discussed.

Zuppi is a veteran of the Catholic Church's peace initiatives and was tasked by Pope Francis to find "paths of peace" between Russia and Ukraine.

In Moscow, Zuppi met with Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia's commissioner for children's rights, as well as Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, which strongly supports the war.

Francis accepted Ukraine's request to intervene wherever possible so that Ukrainian children who were sent to Russia after Moscow's occupation return to Ukraine.

In late March, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Lvova-Belovan and Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing them of abducting children from Ukraine.

Francis said he hopes the Holy See can facilitate family reunification in the same way the Vatican has facilitated prisoner exchanges.

The pope has repeatedly called for an end to the war but has not openly criticized Moscow, part of the Vatican's tradition of maintaining diplomatic neutrality in conflicts in the hope that it can play a role in achieving peace.

The pope said Ukraine has a right to self-defense, but sharply criticized the military industry, saying supplying Ukraine with weapons from the West is immoral "if it is done with the intention of provoking more war or selling weapons."

Francis met with Biden, who is Catholic, at the Vatican in 2021 and previously in 2015 during the papal visit to the US./ Rel