Pope Francis would like to visit Kyiv and Moscow after his trip to Canada, which is scheduled for the end of July.
In an interview with Reuters, Francis said that first of all he would like to visit Moscow in order to serve the “cause of peace” and persuade the Russian leadership to end the war against Ukraine.
“I would like to go (to Ukraine), and I wanted to go to Moscow first. We exchanged messages about this because I thought that if the Russian president gave me a small window to serve the cause of peace. The first thing is to go to Russia to try to help in some way, but I would like to go to both capitals,” the Pope said.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said he was not ready to “ask” Moscow for peace.
“I am not ready to ask for the independence of our state. It already belongs to us, ”he said on Friday, speaking via video link to students and teachers of British universities.
Asked about possible peace talks, Zelensky said that “I understood all the years of my presidency that any war must end with a negotiating table.” “I understand that diplomacy can save people. I understand this, but, unfortunately, the President of the Russian Federation does not understand this,” he said.
Zelensky believes that “if Ukraine were in NATO, there would still be a battle for independence, but it would be different.” “There would not have been so many losses, there could have been a small military conflict or provocations, but we would have saved a large number of people,” he said.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu will take part in talks in Moscow on Wednesday and will visit Ukraine on Thursday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday.
“Today, the Turkish Foreign Minister will leave for Moscow, where he will hold talks tomorrow, and on Thursday he will leave for Ukraine,” the Anadolu news agency quoted Erdogan as saying.
Ukraine International Airlines (UIA, Kyiv) has decided to terminate its branch in the Russian Federation, located in Moscow.
According to the airline’s message in the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission, this decision was made by the Supervisory Board in connection with the reduction of the staff of UIA and the reduction in costs for representative offices.
As reported, in September 2020, UIA ceased operations of its divisions in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus, and in October – in Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Germany and Austria.
In June this year, UIA decided to close its representative office in China.
Тhe international bus carrier Ecolines, which includes the Ukrainian carrier Autolux, resumes traffic from Kyiv to Moscow from July 9.
According to the company’s website, also from July 11, the carrier will resume trips from Kyiv to St. Petersburg.
As reported, Ecolines launched trips from Kyiv to Wroclaw on June 22, from Kyiv and Odesa to Minsk on June 25, from Kyiv to Gdansk and Torun on June 25, and to Zielona Gora on July 1.
