{"id":427406,"date":"2025-05-21T14:09:53","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T12:09:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/05\/21\/guerra-ucraina-negoziati-vaticano-prevost\/"},"modified":"2025-05-21T16:44:26","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T14:44:26","slug":"vatican-willing-to-host-ukraine-russia-negotiations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/05\/21\/vatican-willing-to-host-ukraine-russia-negotiations\/","title":{"rendered":"Vatican ‘willing’ to host Ukraine-Russia negotiations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – The Vatican as a framework for new negotiations between Russia and Ukraine<\/strong>? This is the question that has been circulating\u00a0among the chancelleries halfway around the world in the last few hours, following a series of contacts between Washington, the EU capitals, Italy, and the Holy See<\/strong>. Around the eternal city\u2014and the new pontiff Leo XIV<\/strong>\u2014the meshes of international diplomacy seem to be tightening to bring Moscow and Kyiv<\/strong> to the negotiating table, overcoming the failures of previous rounds of negotiations.<\/p>\n

The speculation about the potential role of the Vatican<\/strong> in the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine was given fresh impetus last night (21 May) by a scant note from Palazzo Chigi reporting on a phone conversation<\/strong> between Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni<\/strong> and the new pope Leo XIV<\/strong>, born Robert Francis Prevost<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister found “in the Holy Father the confirmation of willingness to host the next talks between the parties<\/strong> in the Vatican,” the statement reads. The confrontation between the two followed, it turns out,\u00a0Donald Trump<\/strong>‘s ‘request’ to test the waters at\u00a0the Holy See regarding a potential involvement of papal diplomacy<\/strong> in the ongoing (or rather stalled) negotiations on the Ukraine war.<\/p>\n

\"Vance<\/a>
From left: US Vice-President JD Vance, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (photo via Imagoeconomica)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Shortly after the election to the throne of Peter<\/a>, the pope expressed his desire to give a new centrality to the Vatican as a mediator in global conflicts<\/strong>, though without directly mentioning the conflict in Ukraine. In recent days, Leo XIV met with Volodymyr Zelensky<\/strong> and White House number two, JD Vance<\/strong>, accompanied by Secretary of State Marco Rubio<\/strong>. In what has been touted by the Italian government as a political success for the premier, Vance also confronted Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong>, who finally seems to be taken into some consideration by Trump.<\/p>\n

The star-studded diplomatic chief expects the Kremlin to present its terms for a ceasefire soon<\/strong>, “perhaps in a few days”. The US administration will then scrutinise the Russian proposal, Rubio says, to determine\u00a0Vladimir Putin’s<\/strong> “seriousness” with respect to a negotiating process that has been jammed for months<\/strong> and is greatly annoying\u00a0Washington, which has already threatened several times to withdraw<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>from the talks.<\/p>\n

In spite of the
\npublic declarations<\/a> of openness to direct talks with the Ukrainian leadership<\/strong>, the tsar’s concrete gestures do not so far suggest any readiness to\u00a0engage in real negotiations<\/strong> with Kyiv.\u00a0This is demonstrated, in broad daylight, by the deadlock reached so far in the meetings between the delegations of the belligerents: the indirect one in Riyadh<\/a>, last March, and the direct one in\u00a0Istanbul <\/a>last week.<\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n

\"Vladimir<\/a>
Russian President Vladimir Putin (photo via Imagoeconomica)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the other hand, there does not seem to be much incentive for Moscow<\/strong> to cease hostilities, at least at this stage. On the ground, the situation is favourable to the Russian army, while diplomatically, the front of Kyiv’s allies<\/strong> has proved particularly fragile since Trump decided to take the matter into his own hands,\u00a0showing himself to be overly lenient<\/a> towards the aggressor and even offering him business opportunities with the United States.<\/p>\n

The tsar, moreover, has never explicitly recognised the legitimacy of Zelensky or Ukraine<\/strong> as a sovereign and independent nation. On the contrary, the maximalist demands<\/strong> that the Russian negotiating team continues to put on the table\u2014including the ‘neutralisation’ of the Ukrainian state, the renunciation of NATO membership and the de jure<\/i> cession of the occupied territories to the Federation\u2014seem to go in the opposite direction.\u00a0This, at least, is the\u00a0<\/span>leitmotif<\/em>\u00a0in Brussels, where, just yesterday, the Twenty-Seven\u00a0<\/span>gave the green light <\/a>to\u00a0the\u00a0<\/span>17th package of sanctions against the Kremlin<\/strong>\u00a0to continue ‘putting pressure’ on Putin.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

I had a good conversation with the President of the Council of Ministers of Italy @GiorgiaMeloni<\/a>. As always, cool ideas.<\/p>\n

We discussed yesterday\u2019s talks with President Trump and European leaders. We are coordinating our positions. Italy supports all efforts aimed at achieving a\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/YdEl26IZ3g<\/a><\/p>\n

– Volodymyr Zelenskyy (@ZelenskyyUa) May 20, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

Be that as it may, international diplomacy still won’t give up. The Meloni-Prevost call is the latest\u00a0in a relentless series of phone calls<\/strong> that are ringing frantically in the offices of foreign ministries in many countries.<\/span>\u00a0From Tirana to Washington<\/span><\/a>,<\/span>\u00a0from Brussels to Istanbul, from London to Warsaw, from Paris to Helsinki, from Berlin to Kyiv, via Rome and the Vatican.<\/span><\/p>\n

Palazzo Chigi announced that “It was agreed to <\/span>maintain close coordination between the partners<\/span><\/strong> with a view to a <\/span>new round of negotiations<\/span><\/strong> for a ceasefire and a peace agreement.” There is no shortage of conspiracy theories about diplomatic blunders between allies<\/strong>, fuelling political debate both at home and abroad. The forthcoming meetings, according to those involved, <\/span>will adopt ‘fluid’ formats<\/span><\/strong> and may involve variable geometries. It remains to be seen to what extent these meetings will be able to seriously bring a diplomatic solution to the crisis that has been tearing at the heart of Europe for 11 years.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the whirlwind of international diplomacy in recent days, the Holy See has also found itself caught up in the middle, with the new Pope Leo XIV wanting to bring the delegations from Moscow and Kiev to the negotiating table. But the prospect of substantive negotiations (let alone results) still seems a long way off<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":427371,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[25907,26411,26042,25802,26458,26064,30463,31285,31286,31144],"class_list":["post-427406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-giorgia-meloni-en","tag-negotiations-of-peace-en","tag-papa-leone-xiv-en","tag-robert-francis-prevost-en","tag-vaticano-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427406"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":427431,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427406\/revisions\/427431"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}