Vatican foreign minister, in Moscow, says Ukraine war must end

MOSCOW, Aug 25 (Reuters) - ‌A senior ​Vatican ​official urged an end to the Ukraine war after meeting in Moscow on Tuesday with ‌Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the ⁠first in-person talks between Vatican and Russian officials in five years.

Archbishop ‌Paul Gallagher, the Vatican's ‌foreign minister, said every day that the four-year Russia-Ukraine war continues, it "creates new victims ... and renders ​future reconciliation ever more difficult."

"It is therefore urgent and necessary to end and to look beyond ⁠the conflict," he said, speaking next to Lavrov at a joint press ​conference following their meeting.

He also said that he and Lavrov had discussed avenues towards peace ​in Ukraine and that the ‌two had agreed to cooperate on humanitarian matters such as caring for children impacted ⁠by the war.

Gallagher, the Vatican's second-highest diplomatic official, had last visited Moscow for talks with Lavrov in 2021, ⁠before the start of the war.

Pope Leo has repeatedly called for ​an end to the conflict. In an August 9 appeal, he lamented the "ever-growing number of civilian victims, including children".

Gallagher said ‌on Tuesday the Vatican would "continue to provide strong spiritual, diplomatic, and humanitarian support by ‌contributing to and offering a space for dialogue" ⁠to end the war, ‌which has raged ​for 4-1/2 years.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Lucy Papachristou and Joshua McElwee; Editing by Conor ‌Humphries)

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