President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy hopes that Pope Francis will help return illegally deported children to Ukraine.

"The Pope told me that he would work on it. I am very grateful. This is not an easy issue. I will tell you frankly, if Pope Francis can return our children, I think that is enough. If he can return the children and come to Ukraine, we will be grateful. But if I had to choose only one possibility, then I would honestly focus on that," he said in an interview with Latin American media published on Tuesday.

According to Zelenskyy, he is very grateful to the Pope for the meetings. "Firstly, the fact that he supports people who believe in Ukraine with his prayers. This is already help, I think. Because people are grateful, we have many Catholics, but such signals are not only for Catholics. It seems that for all believers, even for those people who are atheists, because Pope Francis is a serious, powerful figure in the world, and therefore it is also important to get a signal from him," he said.

According to the president, "we invited Pope Francis, I personally invited him to Ukraine. I really wanted him to come. Any city in Ukraine, by the way, not necessarily in the capital, where he can. We are ready to meet the Pope in Western Ukraine. And I also told him about this. This is an important signal of support. And it seems to me that it would be very powerful for the Ukrainian society."