Zelensky invites Pope Leo XIV to Ukraine in their first phone call

Editor’s note: The story is being updated.

President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke with Pope Leo XIV in their first phone call, Zelensky announced on May 12, calling the discussion “warm and substantive."

“I invited His Holiness to make an apostolic visit to Ukraine. Such a visit would bring real hope to all believers, to all our people,” Zelensky said.

Ukraine’s head of state said he had thanked the pontiff for the support for Ukraine and its people and discussed efforts to bring back Ukrainian children abducted by Russia.