Pope Leo XIV today, according to Vatican News appealed to those responsible for the ongoing war in Ukraine for “greater willingness to engage in dialogue and lead to new concrete initiatives for peace.” Speaking during his Angelus address in St. Peter’s Square, the Pope said: “In recent days, a humanitarian operation has been carried out to assist the civilian population in the city of Oleshky. 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.”

The one-week truce allowed Russia to deliver food and medicine to the besieged town, remove some of the land mines, and transport over 750 residents out. Rough estimates of the humanitarian operation, facilitated by Belarus and promoted by both U.S. First Lady Melania Trump and the Pope himself, are that around 1,000 residents stayed in the Russian-controlled town, over 500 of the residents having left Kherson to live within the pre-1991 Russian borders, and over 200 of them moving to Ukraine-controlled territory.