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Pope Francis: Vatican open to helping return Ukrainian children taken to Russia
- The pope said the Holy See had already helped mediate some prisoner exchanges and would do ‘all that is humanly possible’ to reunite families
- Francis revealed a secret peace ‘mission’ was under way but gave no details. He was in Budapest this weekend for talks with Hungarian PM Viktor Orban
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Pope Francis said on Sunday the Vatican was willing to help facilitate the return of Ukrainian children taken to Russia during the war, saying the Holy See had already helped mediate some prisoner exchanges and would do “all that is humanly possible” to reunite families.
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“All human gestures help. Gestures of cruelty don’t help,” Francis said during an airborne press conference en route home from Hungary.
Francis also revealed a secret peace “mission” was under way. However, he gave no details when asked whether he spoke about peace initiatives during his talks in Budapest this weekend with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban or the representative of the Russian Orthodox Church in Hungary.
“I’m available to do anything,” Francis said. “There’s a mission that’s not public that’s under way; when it’s public I’ll talk about it.”
The International Criminal Court last month issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s children’s commissioner, accusing them of war crimes for abducting children from Ukraine.
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Russia has denied any wrongdoing, contending the children were moved for their safety.
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