ROME, September 15. /TASS/. Papal peace envoy Cardinal Matteo Zuppi has welcomed Moscow’s readiness to continue dialogue with Ukraine as a good sign.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a roundtable meeting on the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis earlier on Friday that the "Vatican envoy is planning to come" to Moscow again and Russian officials are ready to meet with him.
"Peace rests on dialogue and it is necessary to try to find possible and necessary ways. Naturally, these are positive statements which meet Pope Francis’ expectations," he said in an interview with the TV2000 Catholic television channel when asked about the "signal from Moscow."
Zuppi, who has just returned from Beijing, did not share his further plans. He assessed his visit to China positively, saying that the Chinese side "demonstrated big interest." "Everyone should go in the same direction, toward a fair peace," he said. "The ball is not merely in Ukraine’s court. Everybody must play."
The papal envoy earlier visited Moscow and Washington. His visits center round humanitarian issues. Kiev turned down Vatican’s mediation in the settlement efforts but asked the Holy See to help release prisoners of war. Cardinal Zuppi said earlier efforts were being made to elaborate mechanisms for exchange of relevant lists. He discussed these matters first in Kiev and then in Moscow, where he met with Russian presidential foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov, children’s rights ombudswoman Maria Lvova-Belova, and Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill, when he visited Moscow in late June.