Pope Leo XIV spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, according to the Vatican.
During the call, the pontiff voiced “deep concern” over the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshky.
Thousands of Ukrainians in the southern frontline city are reportedly facing starvation after Russian forces planted mines along the roads leading out of the area.
The Vatican said Leo urged Putin to agree to a truce that would allow first-aid materials and food to reach Oleshky, while also enabling the voluntary evacuation of the roughly 2,000 people still inside the city.
The conversation took place on the same day the pope was seen in public for the first time since undergoing surgery to remove a cancerous mass from his lung.
Leo, 71, underwent a 90-minute operation on Tuesday morning after doctors discovered a lesion on his chest. He was later diagnosed with cancer after part of his lung was removed.
Photographs released by the Vatican showed the Chicago-born pope standing before a makeshift altar in a room on the 10th floor of Rome’s Gemelli Hospital. He was wearing green vestments.
In the two images, Leo appeared relaxed and in good spirits, with his private secretary, the Peruvian priest Edgard Rimaycuna, standing beside him.
Pope Leo was seen for the first time since his hospitalization following a lung cancer diagnosis as he celebrated Mass in a room at Gemelli Hospital in Rome
Pope Leo XIV, accompanied by his personal secretary, Monsignor Edgard Iván Rimaycuna Inga, left, celebrated Mass at the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome on Friday
“He celebrated with the medical and nursing staff of Gemelli, as well as with people who happened to be there and were clearly off duty at the time,” the Vatican press office said. Police officers also joined the Mass.
The press office said Leo thanked the doctors, nurses and orderlies for their service, their closeness to patients and their care for people in vulnerable conditions. He also expressed gratitude for the attention and treatment he had received during his hospital stay.
The pope’s appeal came as repeated Russian drone strikes and artillery bombardments prevented vital food and medicine from reaching Oleshky. The attacks have placed the remaining population, including about 50 children, in grave danger.
Desperate residents have reportedly attempted to escape along the route known as the “Death Road” toward the southern city of Skadovsk.
The 62-mile journey is considered extremely dangerous. Mines reportedly cover the road, while Russian drones target vehicles and other moving objects.
“These people need to be saved,” Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, said on September 16. He added that residents were desperate to flee “from this hell.”
Those who die are reportedly no longer being buried after the city’s mortuary was also hit in a bombing.
Thousands of Ukrainians are reportedly starving in the frontline city of Oleshky, which has been cut off under Russian occupation
Repeated Russian drone strikes and artillery fire have blocked deliveries of essential food and medicine, placing the remaining population—including about 50 children—in serious danger
The pope is expected to lead the traditional Angelus prayer on Sunday.
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But a Vatican source would not say whether it would be from the hospital or from the Vatican.
The Angelus prayer is traditionally recited by the pope every Sunday from the window of the Apostolic Palace overlooking St Peter’s Square to crowds of faithful gathered below.
Leo was admitted Tuesday to Rome’s Gemelli hospital, north of the Vatican, where he underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumour in his right lung.
Doctors have said that his recovery is progressing normally, but ongoing tests will determine the future course of his treatment.
On Thursday, his doctors said that a chest X-ray indicated ‘good recovery of the operated lung’.
On Friday, they said tests had shown ‘a steady improvement in his general condition’.
They said he was now carrying out ‘his normal daily activities completely independently’.
Test results to determine whether the cancer has spread are still pending.
Pope Leo pictured leaving the Vatican on Tuesday for the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome
Leo pictured outside the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome on Tuesday
‘Morale is good, that’s obvious. And the recovery as well because the pope has been able to celebrate mass,’ the Vatican source said.
The press office has not given an update to the possible timing of the pope’s discharge from hospital, repeating a doctor’s original statement that his recovery would take about a week.
Were Leo to recite the Angelus from the window of the Gemelli hospital, it would not be a first for a pope.
On February 6, 2005, 84-year-old John Paul II appeared at the hospital window while recovering from flu-related respiratory issues, as an aide beside him read out the Angelus prayer.
Pope Francis on July 11, 2021, then 84, also gave the prayer from the hospital window after surgery on his colon, telling the assembled crowd: ‘I am glad to be able to keep the Sunday Angelus appointment, even here.’
Also on Friday, the Vatican released a selection of letters and drawings sent by children at the hospital, including a picture of a tree ‘For Pope Leo’, complete with grass, sun and clouds, and a letter from an 18-year-old girl who wrote to Leo: ‘Better days will come for the both of us.’
A seven-year-old boy named Angelo wrote that he, too, had been on the 10th floor of the Gemelli hospital for the past 36 days for a head operation.
‘My mother and I pray for you every night,’ he wrote. ‘I hope you get well soon.’
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