Major Archbishop Svlatoslav Shevchuk, the leader of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, presented Pope Francis with a fragment from an exploded Russian land mine, as they met in Rome on November 7.


The Ukrainian prelate, who has rallied resistance to the Russian invasion, was in Rome to confer with Vatican officials about the war and the conditions in his homeland. He was making his first trip outside Ukraine since the fighting began.

Archbishop Shevchuk told the Pope that the conflict is “a colonial war, and the peace proposals coming from Russia are colonial peace proposals.”