The Vatican’s equivalent of a foreign minister said diplomacy remains a possible path toward ending the war in Ukraine after talks with Russian officials and Church leaders in Moscow.
Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher said diplomacy remains a possible path toward ending the war in Ukraine after high-level talks in Moscow produced no concrete breakthrough.
Archbishop Gallagher, the Vatican’s secretary for relations with states and international organizations, met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and other officials during an Aug. 24–28 visit to Russia.
“We went to Moscow to speak of peace, to encourage souls troubled by war, and to say ‘Have courage, embrace the path of peace, have the hope of believing in a better day,” Archbishop Gallagher said in an interview with Vatican News published Sunday. “And I believe that essentially this was our message.”
Archbishop Gallagher met with Lavrov during the first day of his visit, although he was not received by Russian President Vladimir Putin. After more than an hour of talks, the two appeared before reporters, with the Vatican diplomat reiterating Pope Leo XIV’s appeal for an end to the war in Ukraine.
“The Holy See does not enter into the details of the negotiations,
