Still convalescing, but fully committed "to dialogue and peace", Pope Leo In a phone call with Volodymyr Zelensky, the Pontiff recalled "the serious situation in the city", as he had already done last Thursday, the day after his surgery for lung cancer, with Vladimir Putin to whom he had asked for a humanitarian truce that would allow relief and a safe escape route for the 2,000 people who remained trapped. "The Holy Father hoped that the collaboration of both parties could allow the arrival of food and medical aid and the voluntary and safe evacuation of the civilian population", the Holy See said, urging both Russia and Ukraine to find a solution together.
And although the Russian president, in their conversation, had in fact passed "responsibility for the difficult humanitarian situation" to Oleshky back to Kiev, the tsar had nevertheless guaranteed support "for the Vatican's intention to help" the city's population. Something in this sense indeed seems to be moving: the human rights commissioner of the Ukrainian parliament, Dmytro Lubinets, reported that Kiev and Moscow are reaching an agreement on the final details for the evacuation of civilians to the territory under Ukrainian control from Oleshky and other occupied locations, for a total of around 6,000 people. "Difficult questions remain - admitted Lubinets - but I hope that in the near future we will all see concrete results from these negotiations".
And if a glimmer of hope seems to be opening up for Oleshky thanks to the Pope's pressure, Russia continues to hammer the rest of Ukraine, day and night, once again hitting energy infrastructures, and even a playground in the Kharkiv region, crowded with families in the middle of the afternoon: at least six people died, including three children. "An absolute atrocity", commented Zelensky on X, without hiding his anger and frustration at "the lives broken". "Even that of a little girl in the stroller: her name was Angelina, she was just over a year old, she was born in August 2025... Her mother was called Inna and she died in hospital... The other little girl killed was 11 years old", wrote the Ukrainian leader, posting the chilling photos of the two little victims. "We must protect lives. We need air defense for Ukraine. We ask that sanctions against Russia not be lifted until the killings stop", Zelensky then insisted, once again appealing to the United States to apply the Graham Act, which Donald Trump instead decided to suspend to favor the agreement with Putin on Russian diesel. The Ukrainian president also once again denounced the loosening of the Starlink system in Ukraine and the lack of alerts from the allies before the latest Russian attacks on the capital, a circumstance denied by the Americans. But he suffered yet another attack from Trump: "He doesn't know what he's talking about, maybe it's time for someone else to lead the negotiations," he told reporters, adding that he is negotiating with Moscow over both Ukraine and Iran.
Putin seems to want to take advantage of the moment, with Zelensky increasingly pushed into a corner by Trump, and according to the Wall Street Journal he has proposed a trilateral summit with the tycoon and the Chinese leader Xi Jinping, to be held in Shenzen on the occasion of the Apec summit on 18 and 19 November, to discuss how to end the conflict in a way favorable to Moscow. The idea was apparently put forward by Putin in the phone call with the tycoon on 9 October, in which they agreed on an agreement for the purchase of Russian diesel by the United States with Trump's aim of giving American consumers a breather in view of the midterms.
The Kremlin confirmed that the possibility of such a summit was mentioned during that conversation, but said that "no specific proposals were put forward."
“Obviously, a final agreement without the participation of someone from Kiev willing to take responsibility is impossible,” said Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.
Beijing has not confirmed the hypothesis at the moment, Trump said he was ready while Europe, excluded from the possible three-way table, returns to claim "a key role to play in a future agreement".
