Pope Francis met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a private audience at the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace on Friday morning, assuring the political leader of his and the universal Church’s continuous prayers for the people of Ukraine.

The Pope gifted Zelenskyy a bronze relief of a small bird beside a flower with the engraved message La Pace E’ Un Fiore Fragile (“Peace is a fragile flower”), as well as a copy of his Message for Peace.

Zelenskyy also received two books from the Holy Father, including the 2020 Statio Orbis and Persecuted for the Truth: Ukrainian Greek Catholics Behind the Iron Curtain.

In turn, Zelenskyy gifted the Holy Father an oil painting depicting the scene of a massacre that took place in the Ukrainian city of Bucha from the perspective of a young girl named Marichka. More than 630 civilians were killed in the Russian attack.

The Oct. 11 meeting is the fourth meeting the Ukrainian president has had with the Holy Father since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022. The last meeting between the two leaders took place in June when Zelenskyy was in Italy for the G7 Summit.    

Since February 2022, Pope Francis has regularly used his general audiences and Angelus addresses to express his concern for the victims of the ongoing conflict in the region, calling for an end to the violence, access to humanitarian aid, and the release of prisoners. 

The Ukrainian leader also met with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, secretary for relations with states and international organizations, to discuss the “state of the war,” humanitarian issues, and pathways that could lead to “just and stable peace” in Ukraine.

Last month, Cardinal Parolin met with Russian Commissioner for Human Rights Tatiana Moskalkova via a Sept. 16 video conference to discuss the need to safeguard international human-rights conventions, with the prelate thanking her for her role in securing the release of two Redemptorist priests. 

During his special June 29 Angelus address for the feast day of Sts. Peter and Paul, Pope Francis expressed gratitude for the release of the two Ukrainian Greek Catholic priests: “I give thanks to God for the freeing of the two Greek Catholic priests. May all the prisoners of this war soon return home.”

On Thursday, the Holy Father also met with the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, who is participating in this year’s session of the Synod on Synodality as a representative of Eastern Rite Churches.  

Archbishop Shevchuk has asked all people to support the suffering people of Ukraine with their solidarity, prayers and humanitarian aid.

He said in a Vatican News report: “Nearly 6 million Ukrainians will face a food crisis this winter. We need to feed the hungry.”