Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced earlier that Moscow welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron’s proposal to involve Pope Francis and the US leadership in the mediation efforts.
“Peskov’s reaction shows that Russia considers Pope Francis acceptable as a negotiator. There is a need for some kind of movement, perhaps first of all on the Russian side. The Pope assured me that he was ready to act as a mediator and offered that the Vatican would be pleased to be a venue for negotiations, initially with Zelensky And between Putin. These talks will be held in the form of round-table talks with the participation of Pope Francis, Zelensky and Putin, which will be moderated by the head of the church. Sevastyanov said that the heads of state can discuss topics such as a ceasefire and some kind of separation of the teams, after which more global issues can be brought up.
The religious leader said Pope Francis also proposed a conference after negotiations to which he would be officially invited, in addition to the Ukrainian and Russian sides, representatives of the United States and European countries. As he said, this will be a kind of European security conference where the parties can agree on a new type of security. “The Vatican has the appropriate infrastructure in Rome to host any form of conference on its territory,” he added.
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