In the Vatican have laid out their hopes by the leaders of USA and Europe in order to be Russia and Ukraine to start peace talks, Following President Donald Trump’s statement that the Pope Leo IDI He had expressed interest in the idea. However, the Kremlin does not seem particularly willing to do so.

Russian officials have no plans to travel to President Vladimir Putin to the Vatican or anywhere else for talks at present and are currently focusing on technical negotiations that started in Constantinople last week, according to people. The Kremlin expects that these negotiations will continue in Constantinople, one of the people said.

“It is not very realistic” for the Vatican to host negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Minister said today Sergei Lavrov at a conference in Moscow. “It is a bit embarrassed for Orthodox countries to discuss issues on a universal platform for the elimination of the deeper causes” of the conflict, “he said.

However, European officials insist that discussions are being held on the role of the Vatican as a possible host or mediator of the negotiations. In fact, talks could be held already next week, although it is up to Russia’s readiness to attend, sources said, demanding that their anonymity be maintained.

US officials are in touch with the Ukrainians to ensure that talks can take place, sources said. They also signal to their Russian counterparts that they would prefer to avoid the meeting of hard -core, such as Putin’s assistant, Vladimir Mentinsky, who led the Moscow delegation in Constantinople, the sources added.

The Pope’s involvement has been accelerated since Monday’s two -hour telephone call between Trump and Putin failed to secure Russia’s commitment to a truce.

Ukraine and the European allies expected that Trump would announce sanctions if Putin refused to stop the war, but the US leader said instead that Kiev and Moscow would have to “start negotiations” for a “negotiations”.

“The Vatican, as represented by the Pope, has stated that he would be very interested in hosting the negotiations,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “Let the process start!”

But Putin will not travel to Italy, a NATO Member State, due to concerns about his safety, since Russia does not consider the Vatican neutral in conflictsaid Sergei Markov, a political adviser with close ties to the Kremlin.

The issue is further complicated by the relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church led by Patriarch Cyril, a staunch supporter of Putin and the war in Ukraine. The Russian Church opposes the Vatican’s involvement in peace talks, considering it as a historical opponent in Ukraine. It is also recalled that Italy has signed the ruling taken by the International Criminal Court, which issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March 2023 for alleged war crimes in Ukraine. So a visit by Putin to Rome would also mean his arrest to Rome.

But even if all these obstacles are overcome, the negotiations are far from reaching an agreement that would require a summit with the involvement of Trump, Putin and Ukrainian President Voludimir Zelenski to sign an agreement that will end the war.

Friday’s meeting in Istanbul was the first face -to -face negotiation between Russia and Ukraine since the war began in February 2022. But the talks collapsed. Putin has proposed the resumption of direct contacts and has stated that he considers the conversations as a continuation of the previous ones.

The Russian delegation reiterated the harsh demands to Ukraine to hand over four areas of the south and eastern region of the country, which the Kremlin claims as its territory, but which its troops only hold in part. AlsoMoscow considers Turkey the best place to continue talks on a memorandum that sets the terms for a peace agreement.

It is recalled, however, that the Holy See has greatly helped to mediate conflicts worldwide, including speeding up the normalization of US-Cuba relations in 2014 and resolving a territorial difference between Chile and Argentina in 1978 that brought the two countries to the brink of war. It has also been active in efforts to achieve peace between Israel and Palestinians.