The pontiff plans to visit, among other things, the Alley of Angels and serve a memorial service there MOSCOW, August 26.
/tass/. Pope Francis is ready to visit Donbass after a visit to Russia, which is tentatively scheduled for spring 2023. This was announced to TASS on Friday by Leonid Sevastyanov, chairman of the World Union of Old Believers, with reference to a personal conversation with the pontiff.
"The Pope is ready either on the way to Moscow or back from Moscow, to visit Donetsk, to visit all the places of the tragedies of eight-year-olds, to visit the Alley of Angels, to serve a memorial service there, to pray for all the children who died in this conflict. I am also ready to meet with orphans and civilians to see everything for myself. This will help to establish a dialogue between Russia and Ukraine, and the West as a whole," Sevastyanov said.
He added that the Ukrainian authorities actively invite the pontiff to visit their country, but the Pope wants to come to Kiev after his visit to Russia. Sevastyanov clarified that the Pope hopes to visit Russia in the spring of 2023, but the pontiff is ready to come earlier if the Russian authorities invite him.
"It should be understood that this visit will not be religious, <...> this visit may take place along a secular line. Meeting with the president, meeting with secular leaders. After visiting Donbass, the Pope can go to Ukraine, convey to them the Russian position, help them find common ground, he sees himself as a mediator with a neutral position," the agency interlocutor explained.
Earlier, Sevastyanov told TASS that he had informed representatives of the Russian authorities about the Pope's desire to visit Moscow, but received an answer that it was better to postpone the trip because of the events in Ukraine.
Earlier, the Vatican did not rule out that Francis could go to Ukraine in August. The Pope himself said that he expects to visit Moscow and Kiev after his visit to Canada (July 24-30), and then repeated that he hopes to come to Ukraine. The Russian Orthodox Church has not yet commented on the Pope's possible trip to Russia. In early July, Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, spoke about the lack of substantive contacts on the visit.
