Just three days after undergoing surgery for lung cancer, Pope Leo XIV on Friday spoke by telephone with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, to call for a cease-fire for civilians to evacuate a besieged city in Ukraine, the Vatican and the Kremlin said.
Since his election in May 2025, Leo has called repeatedly for both an immediate halt to the fighting in Ukraine, and for diplomacy leading to a lasting peace. That he would wade into the topic again while still in a Rome hospital, recuperating after having part of a lung removed, highlights his commitment to the issue.
This time, the pope focused on a particular corner of the war, the small city of Oleshky, in the southern Kherson region, where about 2,000 civilians including some 40 children are trapped and hungry, according to Ukrainian officials. Vendors used to regularly bring food to sell in Oleshky’s markets, but those deliveries ended in May, after people attempting to enter and exit the town were killed by mines or drones on the main road in and out.
The Vatican said in a statement that Leo had appealed to Mr. Putin for food and medical assistance to be delivered to the town, and for a safe corridor to be opened to allow people to leave.
The pope “expressed his deep concern about the grave humanitarian situation” and “reaffirmed the Holy See’s commitment to promoting dialogue and peace,” it said.
Mr. Putin “thanked the Pope for his willingness to contribute to the resolution of the conflict and his ongoing humanitarian efforts,” according to a statement from the Kremlin. It added that Mr. Putin “supported the Vatican’s intention to facilitate the creation of conditions to ensure the safety of the city’s population and organize vital supplies. Cooperation in this regard was agreed upon.”
But previous statements about commitment to humanitarian aid and evacuation along Ukraine’s front lines have often yielded little.
Oleshky, which had about 24,000 people before the war, sits on the Russian-controlled left bank of the Dnipro River, giving locals few ways out. A mined river bank lies on one side and a mined road on the other. Drones from both sides crowd the skies. Ukrainian troops control the right bank but their efforts to secure footholds on the left bank have been deadly, dangerous and largely unsuccessful.
Ukraine has blamed Russia for the stranglehold on the city and repeatedly called for an evacuation in recent months. Russia has not yet agreed to a safe corridor for evacuation but has acknowledged the humanitarian crisis and blamed Ukraine.
The Kremlin said that in Mr. Putin’s conversation with the pope, “he provided a comprehensive explanation of the Kyiv regime’s responsibility for the difficult humanitarian situation” in Oleshky, which it described as a Russian city. It lies in the territory Russia seized in its 2022 invasion and has claimed as its own.
Civilians who escaped Oleshky in recent months described severe hunger, and said they were surviving on what little they could harvest from their own gardens. Ukrainian officials have warned that residents are at risk of starvation. Ukrainian troops have delivered some food by drones, but locals said Russian troops stole some of the packages and intimidated people who tried to collect them.
Tetiana Hasanenko, the city’s exiled leader, said she had not heard anything about the pope’s efforts, but that the situation in Oleshky grows steadily more desperate, and she welcomed any efforts to help.
High-ranking Vatican officials have traveled to both Ukraine and Russia since the war began, and a Vatican official said that Leo had spoken with his special envoy for humanitarian issues, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, after the cardinal returned from Russia late last month.
During that, his third mission to Moscow, Cardinal Zuppi met with Mr. Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, and other Russian officials, and spoke about military and civilian prisoners, family reunification, and the repatriation of children.
“We need to strengthen and speed up the checks needed to ensure that families can be reunited,” Cardinal Zuppi said.
The pope caught the world off guard when he announced last Sunday that doctors had found a small growth in his lung and had decided to operate. Two days later, surgeons removed a lower lobe of his right lung and confirmed that the pope had lung cancer.
Information later released by the Vatican suggested the cancer was caught at an early stage. Doctors have not released the results of additional tests to determine what additional treatments, if any, are warranted.
On Friday, the Vatican said that the pope had resumed working and his doctors said he was moving independently.
Leo’s illness has shaken his papacy, casting uncertainty over his long-term plans for the church, which he has so far implemented at a slow pace. When Leo, the first pope born in the United States, was elected at 69, less than 18 months ago, he seemed to have years ahead of him to shape the Roman Catholic Church.
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