(OSV News) -- The Vatican's Secretary of State has offered to "eventually make the Vatican … available for a direct meeting" between Ukraine and Russia, as May 16 talks between those nations in Istanbul ended after just two hours, with little result except for a mutual prisoner exchange.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin was quoted by the Italian news outlet La Stampa May 16 as saying "the outcome of the Istanbul summit is tragic."
He said the Vatican "hoped that a process could be started, perhaps slowly but with a peaceful solution to the conflict, and instead we are back to the beginning."
The Istanbul meeting, hosted by Turkey's government with the U.S. urging the two sides to participate, was aimed at securing a 30-day unconditional ceasefire in the three-year full-scale war -- something Ukraine has repeatedly called for, although Russia has insisted on demands that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called "unacceptable."
Cardinal Parolin had spoken with media ahead of the talks, while he was attending a May 14-15 conference on Ukraine hosted by the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
"We always hope there are openings for peace," he said. "We are pleased that there is finally the possibility of a direct meeting. We hope that the existing issues can be resolved there and that a genuine peace process can begin."
The cardinal also expressed hope the Istanbul meeting would mark “a serious starting point” to end the war.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had sought a face-to-face meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin at the gathering. After Putin dispatched a low-level delegation to Istanbul, Zelenskyy instead sent a team led by his defense minister.
According to La Stampa, Cardinal Parolin spoke about the Vatican's post-Istanbul offer on the sidelines of an event about the summit.
La Stampa quoted Cardinal Parolin May 16 as saying, "Now we will see what to do but the situation is very difficult, dramatic."
The cardinal added that Pope Leo XIV intends "to eventually make the Vatican, the Holy See, available for a direct meeting between the two parties."
According to the Associated Press, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that the Vatican could be a meeting venue for Russia-Ukraine peace talks before meeting May 17 with Cardinal Matteo Zuppi. Archbishop of Bologna, Italy, Cardinal Zuppi has served as a papal peace envoy between Ukraine and Russia since 2023.
"I think it’s a place that both sides would be comfortable going," Rubio told reporters at the U.S. Embassy in Rome.
Russia's war on Ukraine continues attacks initiated in 2014, and has been declared a genocide in two joint reports from the New Lines Institute and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. The International Criminal Court has so far issued six arrest warrants for Russian officials, including Putin, for war crimes.
