Pope Leo XIV had a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Monday and spoke about ceasefire proposals, Zelenskiy said, in the first known conversation between the newly-elected pontiff and a foreign leader.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has invited Pope Leo XIV to Ukraine. During their first phone chat, Zelensky thanked him for supporting peace.

Pope Leo XIV called for a genuine and just peace in Ukraine and an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, in his first Sunday noon blessing as pontiff that featured some symbolic gestures suggesting a message of unity in a polarized Catholic Church.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke by phone with newly elected Pope Leo XIV on Monday and said they discussed Ukrainian children abducted by Russia and a proposal from allies for a 30-day ceasefire which Moscow has so far not accepted.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed to Pope Leo XIV, asking the new pope for help in bringing home children deported from Ukraine to Russia. The Ukrainian president also said he invited the new pope to visit Ukraine and the two men "agreed to stay in contact and plan (an) in-person meeting in the near future."

Pope Leo XIV has used his first Sunday blessing at the Vatican to address conflicts around the world, calling for an end to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.What It MattersLeo's inaugural Sunday blessing marks a significant return of public papal engagement after months of health-related absences by his predecessor,

I invited His Holiness to make an apostolic visit to Ukraine. Such a visit would bring real hope to all believers and to all our people,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X.

Zelensky said in a post on the Telegram app that his first conversation with the new pontiff was "very warm and truly substantive", and that he had invited the pope to visit Ukraine.   Related ArticleAt Sunday Mass in New York,

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV vowed to take “every effort” Wednesday to work for peace in the Middle East and Ukraine and to actively promote the spirituality and traditions of the eastern rite churches, those Catholic communities with origins in the Mideast and eastern Europe that have been decimated by years of conflict and persecution.