Shevchuk Declares Pope Leo XIV Secured Oleshky Humanitarian Truce
Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, has declared that Pope Leo XIV played a decisive and prophetic role in securing a humanitarian truce in the besieged Ukrainian city of Oleshky through direct phone calls to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensk. According to the major archbishop of Kyiv-Halych, Senza la voce e l’intervento diretto del Santo Padre la tregua non sarebbe stata possibile
as reported by Vatican News.
The diplomatic intervention unfolded while Pope Leo XIV was a patient at the Gemelli hospital, from where he placed the telephone call to the Russian president to request a humanitarian pause.
The Humanitarian Crisis in Besieged Oleshky
Before the conflict, approximately 40,000 people lived in the small city of Oleshky. However, from the beginning of the year, the settlement was completely surrounded and besieged by the Russian army, which mined all surrounding roads and halted any delivery of food. During the summer months, trapped residents were reduced to eating green leaves amid severe hunger, facing an approaching winter with no guarantee of survival without external intervention.
Shortly after the deal took effect, approximately 800 people were successfully evacuated from Oleshky, with many processed by Caritas at the Belarusian border.
Russian President Rejects Future Truces Despite Papal Aid Mission
Shevchuk met with Pope Leo XIV in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican, marking his fifth encounter with the pontiff to express gratitude for the ongoing support from the Holy See. Alongside the papal diplomatic efforts, an aid mission was recently concluded in the war zones by papal almoner Cardinal Luis Marín de San Martín to address urgent local needs.
While Ukrainian leadership remarked that the event proved temporary ceasefires are achievable, the Russian president has reportedly stated that no further truces of this nature will take place.