Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke by phone with newly elected Pope Leo XIV on Monday and said they discussed Ukrainian children abducted by Russia and a proposal from allies for a 30-day ceasefire which Moscow has so far not accepted.

Zelensky invites Pope Leo XIV to witness devastation in ‘warm’ phone call - Zelensky says he is ready to meet Putin ‘personally’ in Turkey this week for peace talks

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has held his first conversation with Pope Leo XIV, discussing the ceasefire situation, negotiations with Russia and extending an invitation to the pontiff to visit Ukraine.

In his first “Urbi et Orbi” (To the City and to the World), the new pope, Leo XIV, opened with Latin to send greetings of peace, then switched to Italian for most of his public address, with a short detour in Spanish to send special greetings to the Peruvian diocese of Chiclayo,

The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, invited Pope Leo XIV to visit Ukraine during a conversation with the new leader of the Catholic Church. Key information President Zelensky invited Pope Leo XIV to visit Ukraine.

Leo, who was born in Chicago, signed a baseball that someone held out to him. A woman in the line asked him for a selfie — a situation few of his predecessors would have faced in their first media outing. He politely declined, shook her hand and moved on.

From left, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, French President Emmanuel Macron, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz make a call to U.S. President Donald Trump from Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday, May 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov)

How surprising the election of the new Pope Leo XIV was, expectations of him, the role of the Pope in the modern Catholic Church, and the attitude of the late Pope Francis to Ukraine and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church are discussed in the interview with the Apostolic Nuncio to Ukraine,