Pope Francis to receive Putin at Vatican next month
The Vatican has announced that Pope Francis will receive Russian President Vladimir Putin for an audience next month, RFE/RL reports.
"The Holy Father will receive the president of the Russian Federation...this upcoming July 4," Holy See interim spokesman Alessandro Gisotti said in a statement on June 6.
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the planning for the visit has already started.
"Preparations for Putin’s visit and contacts in Rome are under way, an audience with the pope is planned during this trip... we will make a statement concerning the details in due course," Peskov said.
Francis has already met Putin twice, in 2013 and 2015.
During the 2015 meeting, Francis urged all parties to the conflict in eastern Ukraine to make a "sincere effort" for peace.
Fighting between government forces and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine has killed some 13,000 people since April 2014, shortly after Russia seized control of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.
In 2009, Russia and the Vatican re-established full diplomatic ties which had been severed during Soviet times.
Putin previously met the now-retired Pope Benedict XVI as well as late pontiff John Paul II.