Pope Leo XIV held a phone call today with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Vatican said.
During the discussion, the Pontiff expressed ‘deep concern’ for the humanitarian situation in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshky.
Thousands of Ukrainians are starving to death in the frontline city after Russian soldiers littered mines on all roads leading away from city in southern Ukraine.
Leo urged Putin for a truce to allow the entry of first aid and food supplies into the town, the Vatican said, and to permit a voluntary evacuation of the 2,000 people inside.
The pair spoke on the same day the Pontiff was seen for the first time since undergoing surgery to remove a cancerous mass from his lung.
Leo, 71, went in for a 90-minute surgery on Tuesday morning after a lesion was found on his chest and was later diagnosed with cancer after having part of his lung removed.
Images released by the Vatican showed the Chicago-born pope in front of a makeshift altar in a room on the 10th floor of the Rome hospital, dressed in a green vestment.
He appeared relaxed and in good form in the two photos released, standing with his private secretary, Peruvian priest Edgard Rimaycuna, at his side.
Pope Leo was seen for the first time since his hospitalization for lung cancer diagnosis, as he celebrates Mass in a room of Gemelli Hospital in Rome
Pope Leo XIV, flanked by his personal secretary, Monsignor Edgard Iván Rimaycuna Inga, left, celebrated Mass at the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome on Friday
‘He celebrated with the medical and nursing staff of Gemelli, some people who were present there, who were clearly off duty at that moment,’ the Vatican press office said, adding that members of the police also joined.
‘He thanked all the staff, doctors, nurses, orderlies, for their service and their closeness to people, for their care of people’s fragility, and in particular, evidently, for the care, attention, and treatment given to him in these days,’ the press office said.
Leo’s remarks comes as constant Russian drone attacks and artillery shelling have made it impossible to deliver essential food and medicine supplies, mortally endangering the remaining population which includes around 50 children.
In desperation, residents are attempting to flee via the ‘Death Road’ to the southern city of Skadovsk.
But the 62-mile route is life-threatening: the road is full of mines and Russian drones target anything that moves.
‘These people need to be saved,’ Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, said on September 16, adding that residents are desperate to escape ‘from this hell’.
Those who die are no longer buried, because even the mortuary has been bombed.
The pope is expected to lead the traditional Angelus prayer on Sunday.
Thousands of Ukrainians are starving to death in the frontline city of Oleshky which has been cut off by Vladimir Putin
Constant Russian drone attacks and artillery shelling have made it impossible to deliver essential food and medicine supplies, mortally endangering the remaining population which includes around 50 children
But a Vatican source would not say whether it would be from the hospital or from the Vatican.
The Angelus prayer is traditionally recited by the pope every Sunday from the window of the Apostolic Palace overlooking St Peter’s Square to crowds of faithful gathered below.
Leo was admitted Tuesday to Rome’s Gemelli hospital, north of the Vatican, where he underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumour in his right lung.
Doctors have said that his recovery is progressing normally, but ongoing tests will determine the future course of his treatment.
On Thursday, his doctors said that a chest X-ray indicated ‘good recovery of the operated lung’.
On Friday, they said tests had shown ‘a steady improvement in his general condition’.
They said he was now carrying out ‘his normal daily activities completely independently’.
Test results to determine whether the cancer has spread are still pending.
Pope Leo pictured leaving the Vatican on Tuesday for the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome
Leo pictured outside the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome on Tuesday
‘Morale is good, that’s obvious. And the recovery as well because the pope has been able to celebrate mass,’ the Vatican source said.
The press office has not given an update to the possible timing of the pope’s discharge from hospital, repeating a doctor’s original statement that his recovery would take about a week.
Were Leo to recite the Angelus from the window of the Gemelli hospital, it would not be a first for a pope.
On February 6, 2005, 84-year-old John Paul II appeared at the hospital window while recovering from flu-related respiratory issues, as an aide beside him read out the Angelus prayer.
Pope Francis on July 11, 2021, then 84, also gave the prayer from the hospital window after surgery on his colon, telling the assembled crowd: ‘I am glad to be able to keep the Sunday Angelus appointment, even here.’
Also on Friday, the Vatican released a selection of letters and drawings sent by children at the hospital, including a picture of a tree ‘For Pope Leo’, complete with grass, sun and clouds, and a letter from an 18-year-old girl who wrote to Leo: ‘Better days will come for the both of us.’
A seven-year-old boy named Angelo wrote that he, too, had been on the 10th floor of the Gemelli hospital for the past 36 days for a head operation.
‘My mother and I pray for you every night,’ he wrote. ‘I hope you get well soon.’
