Pope Leon XIV. Photo credit: Shutterstock Editorial / Profimedia
Metropolitan Antonie, a high clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church, told the RIA state news agency that she will meet Pope Leon on Saturday. According to a source quoted by Reuters, the meeting will take place at the Vatican.
The relations between the Russian and Vatican Orthodox Church have been tense because of the Ukraine war.
Antonie is the president of the Department for External Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Vatican has repeatedly expressed his willingness to host peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, most recently at the beginning of the month, during a meeting in Rome with Ukrainian Prosecutor Volodimir Zelenski.
Zelenski stated, in a message on the social network X, that the organization of negotiations with Russia at the Vatican would be “perfectly possible, in order to stop the Russian aggression and to reach a stable, sustainable and authentic peace.” He added, however, that Moscow rejected such proposals, “as he rejected all other peace initiatives.”
Russian officials have told Reuters in the past that they do not consider the Vatican a suitable place for negotiations, because it is surrounded by Italy, a member of NATO, who supported Ukraine.
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