{"id":1930660,"date":"2023-05-14T05:27:27","date_gmt":"2023-05-14T09:27:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/zelenskyy-meets-pope-francis-at-vatican-and-seeks-backing-for-ukraines-peace-plan\/"},"modified":"2023-05-14T05:30:13","modified_gmt":"2023-05-14T09:30:13","slug":"zelenskyy-meets-pope-francis-at-vatican-and-seeks-backing-for-ukraines-peace-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/zelenskyy-meets-pope-francis-at-vatican-and-seeks-backing-for-ukraines-peace-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Zelenskyy meets Pope Francis, seeks support for Ukraine peace plan."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fzelenskyy-meets-pope-francis-at-vatican-and-seeks-backing-for-ukraines-peace-plan%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1930660&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Ukrainian President Meets with Pope Francis to Seek Support for Peace Plan<\/h2>\n<h3>Private Talks at the Vatican<\/h3>\n<p>Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Saturday to discuss Ukraine&#8217;s peace plan. The two leaders had a private audience, during which Zelenskyy sought the pontiff&#8217;s support in ending the full-scale war launched by Russia a year ago. <\/p>\n<p>Zelenskyy expressed his gratitude to Francis for his personal attention to the tragedy of millions of Ukrainians in a tweet after the 40-minute audience. He also spoke with the pope about the tens of thousands of deported Ukrainian children, saying, &#8220;We must make every effort to return them home.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Peace Formula and Support from Italy and Germany<\/h3>\n<p>Zelenskyy&#8217;s 10-point peace plan includes establishing a special tribunal to prosecute Russian war crimes, creating a European-Atlantic security architecture with guarantees for Ukraine, restoring Ukraine&#8217;s damaged power infrastructure, and ensuring safety around Europe&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/russia-launches-largest-air-assault-of-ukraine-invasion\/\" title=\"Russia Launches Largest Air Assault of Ukraine Invasion\">largest nuclear power plant<\/a> at Zaporizhzhia. <\/p>\n<p>Earlier in the day, Zelenskyy received pledges of open-ended military and financial support from Italian officials, as well as stronger backing for Ukraine&#8217;s aim to join the European Union. Italian President Sergio Mattarella assured Zelenskyy that Italy would continue to support Ukraine militarily and financially, as well as with reconstruction and humanitarian aid. <\/p>\n<p>The German government also announced that it was providing Ukraine with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/u-s-sending-additional-military-aid-worth-275m-to-ukraine\/\" title=\"U.S. Sending Additional Military Aid Worth 5M to Ukraine\">additional military aid worth<\/a> more than 2.7 billion euros ($3 billion), including tanks, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/meet-chinas-j-20-mighty-dragon-stealth-fighter-a-threat-to-the-us-air-force\/\" title=\"Meet China\u2019s J-20 Mighty Dragon Stealth Fighter: A Threat to the US Air Force?\">anti-aircraft systems<\/a>, and ammunition. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Germany wanted to show with the latest package of arms &#8220;that Germany is serious in its support&#8221; for Ukraine. <\/p>\n<h3>Mediation and Condemnation of Russian Crimes<\/h3>\n<p>Zelenskyy also asked the pope to condemn Russian &#8220;crimes in Ukraine&#8221; and spoke about his peace formula as the only effective algorithm for achieving a just peace. However, he indicated that mediation in general would be impossible, saying, &#8220;You can&#8217;t mediate with Putin.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>There has been speculation about whether the Vatican could play some mediating role, but in an Italian TV interview on Saturday, Zelenskyy indicated that he did not believe it was possible. <\/p>\n<h3>Recent Developments<\/h3>\n<p>The meeting between Zelenskyy and Francis came as Russia&#8217;s defense ministry said Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles delivered to Ukraine by the United Kingdom this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/zelenskyy-meets-pope-francis-at-vatican-and-seeks-backing-for-ukraines-peace-plan\/\" title=\"Zelenskyy meets Pope Francis, seeks support for Ukraine peace plan.\">week damaged unspecified civilian enterprises<\/a> in Luhansk province in Ukraine&#8217;s far east. Luhansk authorities separately said another missile strike hit the regional capital, wounding an elderly woman. <\/p>\n<p>Two Russian Mi-8 helicopters and an Su-34 fighter-bomber crashed Saturday in the Bryansk region bordering Ukraine, state news agency Tass and a Telegram channel close to the Russian defense ministry reported. The causes of the crashes were not immediately disclosed, but concern in Bryansk is growing about cross-border attacks from Ukraine. <\/p>\n<p>Despite these recent developments, some Ukrainian units continue to push forward near Bakhmut, with the commander of Ukraine&#8217;s land forces saying on Telegram that &#8220;our soldiers are moving forward in some sectors of the front, and the enemy is losing equipment and manpower.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ROME (AP) \u2014 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had private talks with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Saturday, later saying he sought support for Ukraine\u2019s peace plan from the pontiff, who in the past has offered to try to help end the full-scale war launched by Russia a year ago. Zelenskyy held his hand over<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1930661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[9590,3666,4228,4025,9592,3814,3723,6991,10724],"class_list":["post-1930660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner","tag-francis","tag-meets","tag-peace","tag-plan","tag-pope","tag-seeks","tag-support","tag-ukraine","tag-zelenskyy"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1930660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1930660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1930660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1930661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1930660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1930660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1930660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}