Cardinal Matteo Zuppi (left) arrives at the Vatican for Synod on Synodality meetings on Oct. 10, 2024. The Vatican announced on Monday, Oct. 14, that the cardinal returned to Moscow to meet with Russian authorities as part of the peace mission entrusted to him by Pope Francis. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

Vatican City, Oct 14, 2024 / 11:45 am (CNA).

Cardinal Matteo Zuppi returned to Moscow on Monday to meet with Russian authorities as part of the peace mission entrusted to him by Pope Francis.

The cardinal’s trip to Moscow is to “evaluate further efforts to promote family reunification of Ukrainian children and the exchange of prisoners, with a view to achieving the much-hoped-for peace,” according to the Vatican.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni confirmed on Oct. 14 that the Italian cardinal began a visit to Moscow on Monday after Russia’s ministry of foreign affairs published a photo of Zuppi shaking hands with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Pope Francis asked Zuppi to serve as a papal envoy to “initiate paths of peace” between Russia and Ukraine in May 2023. 

The cardinal’s visit to Moscow comes days after Pope Francis met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a 35-minute private audience at the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace on Friday — their third such meeting since the start of the Ukraine war.

It is Zuppi’s second trip to Moscow since the war in Ukraine began. Zuppi also visited the Russian capital for 48 hours in June 2023 in which he discussed humanitarian initiatives with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill as well as government officials, including Yuri Ushakov, a foreign policy adviser to President Vladimir Putin.

During his previous trip to Moscow, the cardinal also met with Maria Lvova-Belova, Putin’s commissioner for children’s rights. Vatican News reported that the focus of Zuppi’s meeting with Lvova-Belova was “the issue of the over 19,000 Ukrainian minors forcibly taken to Russia,” something for which Zelenskyy has asked the Holy See’s help.

The Vatican-owned news outlet noted that “thanks to the channel opened by Zuppi, a certain number of Ukrainian children brought to Russia by the occupation forces were able to return home.” 

While serving as Pope Francis’ peace envoy, Zuppi has made several other diplomatic visits across the world to promote peace between Russia and Ukraine, including stops in Kyiv, Beijing, and Washington, D.C.

Zuppi has strong ties to Sant’Egidio, a Catholic lay association that has been involved in peace negotiations in many countries. Zuppi’s mission does not have mediation as its immediate goal, however, the Vatican has said.

Russia and the Holy See restored full diplomatic relations in 2010 after maintaining limited diplomatic relations since 1990. 

The day after Russia’s full-scale invasion began, Pope Francis met with outgoing Russian Ambassador Aleksandr Avdeyev when the pope paid an unusual visit to the Russian embassy on Feb. 25, 2022. The Vatican said the pope went to the embassy “to show his concern for the war.” 

Later, in September 2022, Pope Francis said he was involved in a prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine, which involved calling Avdeyev “to see if something could be done, if an exchange of prisoners could be speeded up.”

Pope Francis has condemned the war and called for peace in Ukraine on numerous occasions but has also occasionally received criticism from Ukrainians for the way he has expressed himself. The Vatican clarified in August 2023 that the pope did not intend to exalt Russian imperialism while speaking off the cuff during a live video conference with Russian youth.

The Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, spoke with Russia’s Commissioner for Human Rights Tatiana Moskalkova via video call on Sept. 16 in which he thanked the Russian ombudsman for her role in the release of two Ukrainian priests, discussed prisoner swaps, and underlined the need to safeguard “the fundamental human rights enshrined in the International Conventions.”

At the end of his Angelus address on Sunday, Pope Francis entrusted Ukraine to the intercession of Our Lady of Fátima and appealed for an end to the war.

“I appeal for the Ukrainians not to be left to freeze to death; stop the airstrikes against the civilian population, always the most affected. Stop the killing of innocent people!” Francis said Oct. 13.