Pope Leo XIV holds a roughly hour-long private audience with Bishop Pavlo Honcharuk of Kharkiv-Zaporizhzhia — one of the Ukrainian dioceses hit hardest by the war — accompanied by Fr. Volodymyr Kyrylyuk, rector of the seminary of the Latin Diocese of Kamianets-Podilskyi and a volunteer chaplain to a military unit. "The Pope welcomed us with an open heart, and the entire audience was very, very warm," Bishop Honcharuk tells Vatican News. The bishop thanks the Pontiff for his prayers, closeness and support for Ukraine, for his commitment to the release of prisoners and the return of deported children, and renews the invitation for the Pope to visit the country and, if possible, Kharkiv itself. He describes the city as "the epicenter" of the war, subjected to "continuous bombardment of civilians and warehouses, a true death machine" that is severely affecting children too, in a situation he likens to "the extermination of the people in Ukraine." He reports that the Pope assured him the Holy See "is doing everything possible to bring this war to an end," now in its fifth year, working hard on both the diplomatic and spiritual fronts. The bishop highlights the importance of recent visits by Cardinal Matteo Zuppi and Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, a sign that "the Holy See is making every possible effort," using "all the tools at its disposal": "for us this matters because it shows we are not alone, that the world clearly sees who the victim is and who the aggressor is."