THE Pope Francis he hopes to send his personal emissaries to its presidents Ukrainian and her of Russiawith the aim of brokering a truce, maintains a Catholic website.

The website The Seismographwhich specializes in Vatican news and is generally considered authoritative, writes that this is the “mission” the pontiff was talking about enigmatically on his return from Hungary last month.

According to this source, based on Francis’ plan, the cardinal Matteo Zuppi from Bologna will go to Kiev for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, the head of the Vatican’s Eastern Churches, will go to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The two presidents have already agreed to meet with the pope’s envoys, writes Il Simografo, without citing a source or giving further details.

His representative Vatican Matteo Bruni declined to comment on the report, as he referred a journalist to recent statements by the Vatican’s “minister of foreign affairs,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who has said that “now is the time to take the initiative to build a just peace in Ukraine.”

Tzuppi and Gugerotti were not available for comment. A diplomatic source said there was nothing “concrete” yet.

In 2003, Pope John Paul II took a similar action, sending his representatives to Washington and Baghdadin a failed attempt to prevent war in Iraq.

Zelenskiy met with Francis at the Vatican last Saturday but in remarks he made soon after downplayed the possibility of the pope’s mediation. “With all due respect to his Holiness, we don’t need mediators, we need a just peace (…) Putin only kills. We don’t need a mediation with him,” he told Italian television.

On his return from Hungary, on April 30, the pope had made a puzzling statement about the Vatican’s involvement in ending the war. “There is a mission underway but it is not yet publicized. When that happens, I will expose her,” he told reporters. Both Kiev and Moscow said they knew nothing about the matter.