Pope Leo XIV Urges Concrete Peace After Oleshky
After the Angelus he linked the ceasefire corridor to dialogue and entrusted victims of war to Mary, Queen of Peace and All Saints.
On Sunday, November 1, after the Angelus in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Leo XIV praised a recent humanitarian operation that aided civilians in Oleshky, a Ukrainian town held under Russian occupation and cut off from relief. He expressed hope that the cooperation that made the gesture possible would open wider dialogue and yield new concrete initiatives for peace.
“In recent days, a humanitarian operation has been carried out to assist the civilian population in the city of Oleshky,” the Pope said. “I hope that the cooperation between the parties, which made this necessary gesture of humanity possible, will foster a greater willingness to engage in dialogue and lead to new concrete initiatives for peace.” He entrusted to the Virgin Mary, “Queen of Peace and Queen of All Saints,” all who suffer because of war throughout the world.
From hospital appeals to a corridor
The operation followed direct papal outreach. On October 16, still a patient at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, Leo XIV telephoned Russian President Vladimir Putin to seek a humanitarian ceasefire around Oleshky. Three days later he spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the same subject. With U.S. mediation, Ukraine and Russia agreed on October 23 to a ceasefire and evacuation arrangement; First Lady Melania Trump helped broker the deal. Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States, later clarified that the Holy See had requested the truce but had not organized it.
Exact numbers of those evacuated were withheld for security reasons. Melania Trump indicated that more than 750 people could have been moved; other accounts speak of several hundred displaced. Because the Dnieper River formed a military barrier, the convoy traveled through Russia to Anapa. Those returning to Ukraine flew to Gomel in Belarus before crossing into Ukraine’s Chernihiv region. Food, drinking water, and medical supplies were also delivered to residents who remained in Oleshky.
The Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations welcomed the operation, thanked the Pope, and expressed hope that the model could reach other communities in equally urgent need.
Charity on the ground and the call to holiness
In the same Angelus address, Leo XIV linked the peace appeal to the Solemnity of All Saints. He described holiness as a universal vocation and the saints as men and women who make “decisions of love that surpass the calculations of greed.”