Pope Francis plans to visit Moscow, Kyiv after Canada

Pope Francis has said he is on track to visit Canada this month and hopes to be able to go to Moscow and Kyiv as soon as possible after that.

Speaking of the situation in Ukraine, Francis noted that there have been contacts between Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov about a possible trip to Moscow, Reuters reported on July 4. 

The initial signs were not good. No pope has ever visited Moscow, and Francis has repeatedly condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine; last Thursday he implicitly accused it of waging a "cruel and senseless war of aggression".

When the Vatican first asked about a trip several months ago, Francis said Moscow replied that it was not the right time.

But he hinted that something may now have changed.

"I would like to go (to Ukraine), and I wanted to go to Moscow first. We exchanged messages about this because I thought that if the Russian president gave me a small window to serve the cause of peace ...

"And now it is possible, after I come back from Canada, it is possible that I manage to go to Ukraine," he said. "The first thing is to go to Russia to try to help in some way, but I would like to go to both capitals."