The above-mentioned media quoted statements by Yuri Tandit, Ukrainian negotiator for the release of hostages and war prisoners, who said the invitation was accepted with full approval by the Pope during a meeting at the Vatican.
Tandit also informed it was the Ukrainian President, Petro Poroshenko, who invited the Pope to visit his country.
Recently, and for the first time since the outbreak of clashes in Eastern Ukraine, both sides declared a ceasefire in regions where the forces of Kiev conducted from mid-April 2014 an large-scale punishment operation against rebels in the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk.
"So I want to congratulate Ukrainians that the Pope Francis, who prays for peace in our country, is likely to come to us", Tandyt said.
Some comments published in the media suggested the Pope's visit to Ukraine is also related to the current tension between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the mediating role of the head of state of Vatican in this regard.
On the other hand, press reports indicate that the current relations between the Holy See and the Orthodoxy reach a positive dynamics, especially through the Orthodox and Catholic faithfuls' understanding of the need to protect Christian values; among them, the family crisis and the weakening of moral principles in private and social life.(PL)
