Kyiv suffers heavy bombing after Pope’s ‘unique’ meeting with Zelenskyy

The meeting continued a series of gestures by Pope Leo towards Ukraine, starting with his first call after his election to President Zelenskyy and their first meeting after his inauguration Mass.

The nunciature in Kyiv was damaged during Russian strikes on the city the day after the Pope met President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a private audience.

During the largest recorded bombardment of Ukraine since the invasion in 2022 on the night of 10 July, shrapnel damaged the roof of the nunciature’s main building as well as its garage and office.

“None of our people were hurt. There were a lot of drones flying, and it is not clear where each one was targeting. We only got shrapnel. The strikes hit near us, 70 metres and 90 metres away,” the apostolic nuncio to Ukraine Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas said the next day.

“The damage is not significant, but I wanted to emphasise this, because otherwise it happens like with an Italian journalist yesterday: ‘Oh wait, are there bombings going on in your area?’,” Kulbokas told The Tablet. “They have not only been going on [in Kyiv] for four years, but they are intensifying,” he said, adding that the drones are specifically targeting civilian neighbourhoods.

On the afternoon of 9 July, Pope Leo XIV received President Zelenskyy at his summer residence of Castel Gandolfo. “We very much count on the Vatican and His Holiness to help provide a place for a high-level meeting of leaders to end this war,” Zelenskyy said afterwards.

He also said he told the Pope about “the veneration Ukrainian society has for Andrey Sheptytsky”, a leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the early twentieth century credited with defending Ukrainian identity through two world wars and protesting against Nazi atrocities and the Holocaust. The cause for Sheptytsky’s beatification opened in 1958. Last week, the prefect for the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints Cardinal Marcello Semeraro said it had entered “the final stage”.

Andrii Yurash, the Ukrainian ambassador to the Holy See, said of the Pope’s audience with Zelenskyy: “It was a unique meeting, because for the first time in 24 years, the head of the Catholic Church received the head of state in Castel Gandolfo. Understandably, Pope Francis just chose not to spend his summers there, but even Pope Benedict did not do that, so that is a very huge and positive gesture for Ukraine.”

He said this continued a series of important gestures by Pope Leo towards Ukraine, starting with his first call after his election to President Zelenskyy and his first meeting with the Ukrainian president just after his inauguration Mass at the Vatican.

“During these encounters, the invitation to visit Ukraine was always extended – that would not only be a huge symbolical gesture, but the biggest investment for the peace of our country,” Yurash told The Tablet on 14 July.

Olena Kondratyuk, the deputy speaker of the Verkhovna Rada – the Ukrainian parliament – met Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s secretary for relations with states, on 10 July. She said they discussed key humanitarian issues, particularly the return of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia, as well as the escalation of violence against civilians and religious communities. At least 63 clergy of various denominations have been killed in the war, and more than 600 churches and religious buildings destroyed or damaged.

“We are grateful to the Holy See for its constant diplomatic and moral support for Ukraine, as well as for its efforts aimed at the return of abducted Ukrainian children. We especially appreciate the attention of Pope Leo XIV to children affected by the war,” Kondratyuk wrote on social media.

“All abducted children must be returned even before any peace agreements are concluded. And Russia must see that a broad international coalition is interested in this,” she emphasised.

Archbishop Gallagher said the Holy See would continue its humanitarian mission and mediation efforts to return Ukrainian children, in particular through the activities of Cardinal Matteo Zuppi’s group, which participates in the Presidential Initiative Bring Kids Back UA.

Kondratyuk also discussed the worsening humanitarian situation in Ukraine at a meeting in the Vatican with the secretary general of Caritas International Alistair Dutton.

“One of my most important tasks is to accumulate the efforts of everyone who can help Ukrainians now, in times of war. In particular, this applies to large international foundations that can help vulnerable groups in Ukraine with specific actions – the elderly, internally displaced people, people with disabilities, children,” Kondratyuk said.

“Given that almost all state budget revenues are directed to financing security and defence, the social sphere relies on international funding. This issue is constantly escalating.”

Dutton said Caritas agencies “are trying to do everything possible for Ukraine. We are constantly analysing needs and are in the process of raising funds to help Ukrainians during the war”.

Kondratyuk reported the Caritas mission in Ukraine has deployed 54 aid centres, covering 23 regions and over 15,000 settlements, including frontline zones. The mission is supported by 100 partners, with over 600 volunteers involved.

Since February 2022, it has aided more than 1.2 million Ukrainians, distributing over 5,000 tons of humanitarian aid and offering psychosocial support, shelters, cash assistance and consultations to those in need.

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Hope amid the ruins

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