What the Pope Has Said About Russia's Invasion of Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksy will meet Pope Francis in Rome on Saturday as well as Italian government officials as Ukrainian forces say they are making progress around the strategically important city of Bakhmut.

The head of the Roman Catholic Church has repeatedly lamented the loss of life and carnage unleashed by the war but has stopped short of condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Zelenksy's visit comes amid reports that Russian troops have "fled from the flanks" around Bakhmut, according to Wagner group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin. His pro-Kremlin mercenaries have been attempting to seize the embattled city for months.

The pope last met Zelensky in 2020 - before Russia launched its invasion in February 2022 - and Francis' statements about the war have occasionally raised eyebrows.

On April 30, the pontiff appeared to suggest that a secret peace mission was underway.

"I'm available to do anything," Francis told reporters during a press conference as he was flying back from Hungary. "There's a mission that's not public that's underway; when it's public I'll talk about it."

He offered no further details but the pope had met Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal the previous week.

Earlier in April, Francis addressed the war during his remarks at Easter, saying: "Help the beloved Ukrainian people on their journey towards peace, and shed the light of Easter upon the people of Russia."

Pope Francis has previously stopped short of laying the blame for the war on Putin, saying in March that the conflict was fueled by "imperial interests, not just of the Russian empire, but of empires from elsewhere."

At the time, Francis also expressed a willingness to talk to Putin in order to push for peace, according to a Reuters report.

In an interview published in June last year, the pontiff told Jesuit magazine La Civiltà Cattolica that the war was "perhaps somehow provoked" and recalled a conversation he had before the war where someone had told him that NATO was "barking at the gates of Russia."

While Francis criticized the "ferocity and cruelty of the Russian troops," he also appeared to warn against framing the war in black-and-white terms.

"We need to move away from the usual Little Red Riding Hood pattern, in that Little Red Riding Hood was good and the wolf was the bad one," Francis said. "Something global is emerging and the elements are very much entwined."

The pontiff has repeatedly called for peace in Ukraine, including in his 2022 Easter message where he said: "Let there be a decision for peace. May there be an end to the flexing of muscles while people are suffering. Please, please, let us not get used to war."

Before meeting the pope at the Vatican on Saturday, Zelensky will meet Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

The Ukrainian president's visit to Italy also comes ahead of the final of the Eurovision Song Contest, which Ukraine won last year but is being hosted in the U.K. because of the ongoing conflict.

There is continuing controversy over the fact that Zelensky has not been permitted to speak at the event, with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) saying that "making political or similar statements" is prohibited at the contest.