VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo XIV held a first meeting on Saturday with a senior Russian Orthodox cleric at the Vatican since becoming the head of the Catholic church earlier this year, the Vatican said without giving further details.

Pope Leo — who has called on the Kremlin to make a “gesture” towards peace in Ukraine — received Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, the head of external relations at the Russian Orthodox Church.

Relations between the Vatican and Moscow has been frosty for centuries.

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, has sanctified Moscow’s Ukraine invasion, which he has described as a “holy war.”

But Moscow had a dialogue with the late Pope Francis, widely criticised in Ukraine, with Metropolitan Anthony hold around a dozen meetings with the Argentinian pontiff.

The Russian cleric told Italian newspaper La Repubblica days before the meeting that Pope Francis had a “balanced approach” on Ukraine, while he did not know Leo’s stance yet.

Pope Leo is the first American pope. He took over the church at a time when the United States is pushing for peace in Ukraine, in efforts that have so far yielded few results to stop the three-year war.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2025