Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Rome on 9 July for a two-day visit that began with talks at the Quirinale Palace with Italian President Sergio Mattarella. The trip precedes the fourth Ukraine Recovery Conference, co-hosted by Italy on 10-11 July, which aims to mobilise public and private financing for the country’s reconstruction. Zelensky then travelled to Castel Gandolfo for an audience of roughly half an hour with Pope Leo XIV. A Vatican statement said the pontiff reiterated his readiness to host Ukrainian and Russian delegations in the Holy See for negotiations “toward a just and lasting peace.” The two leaders also discussed efforts to secure the return of Ukrainian children taken to Russia, a figure Kyiv puts at about 19,500. Later in the day Zelensky opened talks in Rome with retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia. Kyiv hopes Washington’s envoy can help broaden support for its 10-point peace formula and attract additional security and economic assistance. Moscow has not publicly responded to the Vatican’s latest mediation offer. Previous initiatives have stalled amid continuing Russian missile strikes and Ukraine’s insistence that any settlement respect its territorial integrity.