Exclusive-Russia does not see Vatican as a serious arena for peace talks, sources say

By Guy Faulconbridge

(Reuters) -Russia does not see the Vatican as a serious venue for peace talks with Ukraine because the Holy See is the seat of Catholicism and is surrounded by Italy, a NATO and EU member, three senior Russian sources told Reuters.

They also point out that many Russian officials cannot even fly there due to Western restrictions.

The Vatican has so far been silent in public on the idea raised by U.S. President Donald Trump after a call with President Vladimir Putin that Pope Leo XIV could host talks aimed at ending Europe's deadliest conflict since World War Two.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said last week that Pope Leo XIV, the first U.S.-born pontiff, had confirmed his willingness to host talks during a phone call with her.

"The Vatican definitely is not seen in Russia as a serious force capable of resolving such a complex conflict," one senior Russian source acquainted with top-level Kremlin thinking said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Among the reasons cited by the three sources is the fact that both Russia and Ukraine are predominantly Eastern Orthodox countries, while the Vatican is surrounded by NATO member Italy, which has supported Ukraine and repeatedly sanctioned Russia.

The Kremlin and the Vatican did not respond to requests for comment. When asked last week about the Vatican idea, the Kremlin said only no decision had yet been made.

The Russian sources underscored that for most senior Russian officials, it would be very difficult to even get to the Vatican from Moscow as direct flights were cancelled after the start of the war on February 24, 2022, and there are a myriad of European Union sanctions on Russian officials.

'BIT INELEGANT'

One of the Russian officials quipped with sarcasm that the only venue better than the Vatican would be the Hague - the seat of the International Criminal Court (ICC) which has issued a warrant for Putin's arrest on war crimes charges.

The Kremlin says the ICC arrest warrant is an outrageously partisan decision, but meaningless with respect to Russia, which is not a signatory to the court. Russian officials deny war crimes in Ukraine.

Putin's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, on Friday said the idea of the Vatican as a potential arena for peace talks was "a bit inelegant" given that Russia and Ukraine were Eastern Orthodox countries.

The Russian Orthodox Church is by far the biggest of the churches in the Eastern Orthodox communion, which split with Western Christianity in the Great Schism of 1054.

According to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, the overwhelming majority of Ukrainians identify themselves as followers of Eastern Christian Orthodoxy, though support for a non-Russian aligned Orthodox Church of Ukraine has soared since the war began in 2022.

Russian sources said they viewed Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman as potentially suitable venues for talks. Putin has repeatedly praised Gulf Arab states and Turkey for their attempts to mediate an end to the war.

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow; additional reporting by Joshua McElwee in the Vatican City; editing by Gareth Jones)