Russia rejects Vatican offer to host peace talks on Ukraine

(OSV News) -- Russia has rejected the Vatican's offer to host talks for ending the war in Ukraine, despite international support for the idea.

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin had offered to "eventually make the Vatican … available for a direct meeting" between Ukraine and Russia, as May 16 talks between those nations in Istanbul ended after just two hours, with little result except for a mutual prisoner exchange.

The move was endorsed by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and U.S. President Donald Trump, with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirming the Vatican could be a meeting venue for Russia-Ukraine peace talks before meeting May 17 with Cardinal Matteo Zuppi. The Archbishop of Bologna, Italy, Cardinal Zuppi has served as a papal peace envoy between Ukraine and Russia since 2023.

"I think it's a place that both sides would be comfortable going," Rubio told reporters at the U.S. Embassy in Rome.

Ukraine President Voldymyr Zelenskyy -- who had a private meeting with Pope Leo XIV following the May 18 papal inauguration Mass at St. Peter's Square -- said in his May 19 conversations with Trump he had "reiterated that Ukraine is ready for direct negotiations with Russia in any format that brings results. Türkiye, the Vatican, Switzerland -- we are considering all possible venues."

However, Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has nixed the prospect, saying his nation has "no plans" for when or where the next meeting between the two nations will take place.

Lavrov made the remarks while speaking at a May 23 conference in Moscow on "Historical South Russian Lands: National Identity and Self-Determination of Peoples."

He described efforts to coordinate talks at the Vatican as "unrealistic."

"Imagine the Vatican as a venue for negotiations. It's a bit vulgar," said Lavrov, according to the Ukrainska Pravda media outlet, citing Russian media outlet RBC. Lavrov's word choice has also been rendered as "a bit inelegant."

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told media May 22 there are "no agreements" to hold talks at the Vatican.

Lavrov cited religion as one obstacle, saying a meeting between Russia and Ukraine, "two Orthodox countries," at a "Catholic platform" would be "somewhat uncomfortable" for the Vatican.

Most Christians in Ukraine identify as Orthodox, followed by Ukrainian Greek and Roman Catholic. The nation's religiously plural society is also home to historic Jewish, Muslim and Protestant communities.

Some 71% of Russians identify as Orthodox, with 15% claiming no religious faith and 5% identifying as Muslim. Other faiths, including Catholicism, each represent 1% or less of the remaining population.

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill has been a fervent supporter of Russia's war on Ukraine, launched in 2022 and continuing attacks initiated in 2014. The patriarch preached in a September 2022 sermon that any Russian soldier who dies in Ukraine offers a sacrifice that "washes away all the sins that a person has committed."

Sergei Markov, a political consultant closely aligned with the Kremlin, told Bloomberg that security concerns prevent Russian President Vladimir Putin from traveling to the Vatican, located within the NATO member state of Italy.

Putin is the subject of one of six arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for war crimes by Russian officials in Ukraine. As a signatory to the Rome Statute, which created the ICC, Italy would in principle have a duty to arrest Putin if he entered the country.

Bloomberg, citing unidentified European officials, said discussions are nonetheless taking place to create a role for the Vatican in Ukraine-Russia talks.