July 17 (UPI) — The Vatican will send a high-level emissary to Washington, D.C., this week to meet with President Joe Biden on Russia’s war in Ukraine and the ongoing effort to repatriate thousands of Ukrainian children deported by Russian officials.
Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi, archbishop of Bologna and president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, will travel to the White House on Tuesday at the request of Pope Francis.
Cardinal Zuppi will spend three days in Washington, and in addition to meeting with the president, will also meet with U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, Joe Donnelly. Zuppi’s U.S. visit follows recent trips to Kyiv and Moscow, to “promote peace in Ukraine,” according to the Holy See Press Office.
Ukraine has claimed nearly 20,000 children have been deported or forcibly displaced by Russia since its invasion in February 2022.
In April, Ukraine’s government formed a coalition of world leaders, called the Coordination Council for the Protection and Safety of Children, to bring home the thousands of displaced children and Ukrainian orphans.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Children’s Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova in March for illegally transferring children to Russia.
“For us, the result is only concrete sentences for all Russian war criminals, including the top leadership of the aggressor country,” Zelensky said in a recent speech.
“These crimes require special, priority attention. We must increase pressure on Russia to stop mass deportations and create a universal mechanism for the protection of children,” Zelensky added.
In May, Pope Francis revealed the Vatican was conducting a peace mission to end the war in Ukraine, acting as an intermediary between Putin and Ukraine’s leadership.
“The Holy See is willing to act because it is right, it is just,” Pope Francis said. “It is a question of humanity before it is a question of the spoils of war or a displacement caused by war.”
“All human gestures help, but gestures of cruelty do not help. We must do everything humanly possible.”
“There is no peace plan or mediation,” Zuppi told reporters earlier this month when asked about the peace mission. “There is a great aspiration that the violence ends, that human lives can be saved starting with the defense of the youngest.”