Papal envoy visits Bucha

Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, a special envoy of Pope Francis, has paid a visit to the Kyiv suburb of Bucha.

The Kyiv regional military administration's press service said this in a post on Telegram, Ukrinform reports.

"Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, a special envoy of Pope Francis, paid a visit to Bucha in the Kyiv region," the post reads.

Kyiv region governor Ruslan Kravchenko and local officials accompanied the envoy during his trip to the region.

Kravchenko noted that this was the first visit by Pope Francis' peace envoy to Ukraine, during which he saw first-hand the extremely high price that the Ukrainians pay for freedom and peace around the world.

Representatives of the delegation visited the Church of St. Andrew the First-Called in Bucha. This is the place where 119 civilians were buried during the occupation.

"Such stories are a pain for the entire civilized world. The papal envoy spoke about the mass murders of civilians by the Nazis near the Italian city of Bologna. The Ukrainians, like no one else, want such terrible crimes against humanity to never happen again," Kravchenko said.

On May 1, Pope Francis said the Vatican was participating in a peacekeeping mission to try to end Russia's war against Ukraine.