The two-hour detailed discussions between US President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, the President of Russian Federation, for ending the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia are expected to end the unnecessary fratricide between the two powerful countries having close historical, religious and deep social ties. The leaders of the two estranged neighbours might soon begin negotiations in the Vatican.
Trump has endorsed that Ukrainians and Russians should directly negotiate peace; and in this effort for peace the Pope may play a significant role.
The talks between the two top leaders of the world are expected to end the three-year old Russian aggression against Ukraine, which had begun on 24 February 2022. Earlier, Russia had annexed Crimea in 2014, a territory gifted by the USSR in 1954 to Ukraine. It was done under the leadership of Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary of the USSR, who had decided to honour Ukrainians for their fight and supreme sacrifices against the German invasion.
During the ongoing conflict, it is estimated that Russian troops have occupied 20 percent of the Ukrainian territories. Eight million Ukrainians have been internally displaced and more than 8.2 million have taken refuge in other European countries.
Earlier, Pope Leo XIV, the newly elected leader of the Catholic Church, had expressed interest in hosting peace talks. Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, had met Pope Leo XIV after the pontiff’s inaugural mass for his kind intervention for peace.
An Effort for Christian Unity
It is hoped that if the peace could be arrived at under the peace initiative of the Vatican, it might also end the petty differences between the two powerful religious cults. It may be noted that the main difference between Roman Catholicism and Russian Orthodoxy could be traced to their understanding of the papacy. Roman Catholics believe in the Pope’s supreme authority, while Orthodox Christians believe in the primacy of Bible and tradition. Interestingly, Roman Catholic masses are primarily in Latin or local language, Orthodox Church conducts prayers in Old Church Slavonic. However, in recent years, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has discontinued its ties with the Russian Orthodox Church.
Currently, there are about 1.34 billion baptized Catholics worldwide (according to the statistics provided by the Holy See) and about 220 million baptized members of the Eastern Orthodox Church. In the latter, Russian Orthodox Church is the largest autocephalous (self-governed) church, which comprises over 112 million members worldwide, thus being second only to the Roman Catholic Church, in terms of numbers of followers. It is being apprehended that the Ukrainians might find the Roman Catholic cult more suitable for them to disconnect with the Russian Orthodox Church.
Trump’s Optimism
It goes to the credit of Trump that as soon as he learned that Putin would not be coming to Turkey, he postponed his visit to the country, where under the US supervision of the peace talks were taking place last week. He, however, did not lose his sense of optimism about the prospect for peace, posting on social media that the combatants would “immediately start” negotiations for a ceasefire and an end to the war.
Initially, this sentiment appeared to be somewhat at odds with the Russian view. Putin only said that his country is ready to work with Ukraine to craft a “memorandum on a possible future peace agreement”, but the two-hour talks between the two leaders have paved the initial road map for peace.
Meanwhile, there are doubts that Putin’s talks about memorandums and a “possible future” of peace does not seem to be the basis for a solid ground on which lasting deals could be quickly built.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated before the media in Rome on May 17 that the Russia and Ukraine might soon begin at Vatican for the forthcoming negotiations for peace negotiations by taking up the Holy Seer’s long standing offer after Pope Leo XIV vowed to personally make “every effort” to help in ending the war. Rubio also had a detailed discussion with Cardinal Matteo, the Vatican point man on Ukraine, Rubio said that he would be discussing potential ways the Vatican could help, “the status of the talks, the updates and the path forward.”
Gopal Misra has been associated with national and international media. His books on journalism and geo-politics have been well-appreciated. Views are personal.
