Pope Francis Meets Ukraine's Zelenskyy at Vatican

Pope Francis met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Vatican on Friday for their second face-to-face encounter in four months.

The two men, who previously met on the sidelines of a Group of Seven (G7) summit in southern Italy in June, held talks for 35 minutes at the Vatican's apostolic palace.

At the end of the meeting, Francis gifted Zelenskyy a piece of bronze artwork with a flower growing next to a bird, inscribed with the phrase "Peace is a fragile flower."

Zalenskyy gave the pope an oil painting showing a child amid ruins in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, which was occupied by Russian forces for 33 days in spring 2022.

Ukraine and the West accuse Russian forces of committing war crimes during their occupation of Bucha, which Moscow denies.

A Vatican readout provided no details about the pope's meeting with Zelenskyy, but said a subsequent meeting between the Ukrainian leader and the Vatican's chief diplomat included discussions "dedicated to the state of the war ... as well as the ways in which it could be brought to an end."

Zelenskyy is traveling across Europe this week to discuss his proposed "victory plan" with the leaders of Britain, France, Italy and Germany, and the head of NATO.

Western officials and Zelenskyy have said the war with Russia is at a critical point and Ukraine is keen for further support to try to change the balance on the battlefield to put itself in a strong position for eventual peace talks.

The pope drew the ire of Ukrainian officials in March when he suggested they should have the courage of the "white flag" to negotiate an end to the war.

At the time, Zelenskyy dismissed the pope's remarks as "virtual mediation" from a distance.

Francis, 87, has also criticized Ukrainian lawmakers' plans to ban activities of a Russia-linked branch of the Eastern Orthodox Church, which Kyiv accuses of spreading pro-Russian propaganda and of housing spies.

The pope met privately on Thursday with the leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk. The prelate, based in Kyiv, has been in Rome for a Vatican summit of global bishops.

"I wanted to tell the pope about the disaster of the war and the challenges coming this winter," Shevchuk told the Vatican's media outlet.