Pope Francis considered visiting besieged Mariupol in May 2022 — Vatican envoy

The Apostolic Nuncio (the Vatican’s ambassador) to Ukraine, Visvaldas Kulbokas, stated in an interview with RBC-Ukraine.

The ambassador noted that only Pope Francis could personally decide to visit Ukraine, and he was ready to do so in May 2022, when the situation in Mariupol was at its worst.

"I remember that in 2022 there was even such a moment — on May 15 — when the defenders of Mariupol had not yet been taken prisoner. There was a very complex proposal for different countries to cooperate. It was perhaps a utopian idea to involve China, Turkey, and Pope Francis as a moral authority to help the defenders of Mariupol get out alive — not even necessarily to return to the unoccupied territory of Ukraine or to avoid captivity, but to go to another country to stay there during the war," Kulbokas said.

According to him, when he told the pontiff about the discussion of a proposal to rescue the Ukrainian soldiers, he immediately received a response from Pope Francis — that if such a thing happened, he would come to Ukraine, to Mariupol.

"In other words, spiritually, Pope Francis was ready to come to Ukraine. This example suggests to me that the Pope’s decision depended on his understanding of when he could be most useful," he emphasized.

The ambassador explained that for Pope Francis, it was not a question of showing that he was with Ukraine, but rather a question of when his presence would have the greatest impact.

"I spoke several times with the Pope, and I even saw that his understanding was changing, because in 2022 I already realized that he was preparing to come, I was waiting for him. Then something changed in his thoughts. And at the end of 2024 — beginning of 2025, his position changed again. I started waiting for his visit to Ukraine again. There just wasn’t any clarity as to when," Kulbokas said.

According to him, Pope Francis was such that even when he made a decision, "he felt free to change it if he realized it was a wrong decision, or if some new information came to him."

"It was never easy for me to understand whether he would come or not, and when he might come," Kulbokas added.

• On Thursday, May 8, the cardinals elected a new Pope on the third attempt: he is Robert Francis Prevost from the U.S., who took the name Leo XIV.