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In the early hours of Saturday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy released a video address in which he told Moscow that now was the time for urgent peace talks, warning that Russian losses will otherwise be so huge it will take generations to recover.
Here are some of the key points from his speech:
The Argentine pontiff has been forced to perform a diplomatic balancing act. He has been drawn into the conflict as the spiritual guide of five to six million Catholics in Ukraine.
But the Vatican has also spent years fostering closer ties with the Russian Orthodox Church led by Patriarch Kirill – a close ally of President Vladimir Putin and a key pillar of his ruling apparatus.
